As the icicle turns
Drip by drip, machine freezes out existing theory
A team of Canadian iciclologists has put to rest the notion that one frozen cone of drips is exactly the same as the next. By growing lots of icicles in controlled laboratory conditions, the scientists have uncovered evidence that runs counter to an earlier theory saying that all icicles should, by and large, assume the same uniform, platonic icicle shape. They posted their observations online August 11 at arXiv.org, with a supplementary series of videos on YouTube.
Physicists Stephen Morris and Antony Szu-Han Chen of the University of Toronto
