Science: Snowy Silence

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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.