Science: Snowy Silence

Everybody knows that it is very quiet after it snows. But last week in Nature, two inquisitive Britons from the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington told exactly how efficient a sound absorber snow is. They carried a carpet of newly fallen snow, four inches deep, into their laboratory, found it absorbed 90% and more of vibrations in the middle and high frequency ranges, far more than heavy velvet draperies.