Re: mass extinctions and DDT

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> >Aren't there some big windows in a chaple in Europe that are now thicker
> >at the base because glass is just a really really viscous liquid?  Or is
> >that science babble?
>
> Well, I'm not overly sure about the window thing, but I can say with
> certainly that glass is an >extremely< viscous substance.  Not likely to
see
> it flow on its own in our lifetime.

Some windows are thicker at the base after a mere 100 years (depending on
the sort of glass AFAIK). Very old windows tend to become white -- the glass
finally crystallizes = freezes into a solid.
        Via extremely fast cooling it is possible to make glasses of metals
and water, respectively (probably works with every liquid). Glass has so
long, branched molecules that everything counts as "extremely fast".

Regarding the original question of the thread -- "why don't we analyse KT
boundary (and perhaps other) sediments for industrial contaminants?" --
various interstellar amino acids etc. have already been found in that layer
in Denmark, so I think any industrial contaminants would have been found
would they exist. :-)

http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1995Feb/0213.html

*********************************************************
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.

Signature of HP Derek Tearne (at least 1994 -- 1998)