Cryogens are defined as substances that produce low temperatures. In this study, cryogens refer to salts added to snow or ice to cool underlying soil, resulting in reduced weed establishment. In laboratory experiments, bags of ice mixed with cryogens were able to reach temperatures as low as −17 C. In soil-filled pots stored at 4 C, bags of cryogenic salts filled with ice chips reduced the soil temperatures to below 0 C and reduced the establishment of weeds significantly without salinity effects. The cryogen magnesium chloride-6-hydrate (MC) that was effective in pot experiments was tested in an oat field in 2008 and 2009. Plastic bags containing concentrated solutions of MC, perforated at the top, were placed on bare soil just before snowfall. Contact of snow with MC was expected to decrease the surface soil temperature enough to cause freezing injury to seeds in the soil. Although overall effects on weed establishment were small, the cryogenic effect did significantly reduce corn spurry establishment in 2008, and significantly reduced overall weed establishment in both years. These results show that weed management with cryogenic salts is possible in principle, but requires further technical improvements to be practical in the field.

The thermal preferences of two strains of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata, one resistant to, and one susceptible to, the parasite Schistosoma mansoni were determined in an aquatic thermal gradient. Snails were tested without exposure to the parasite, and 2 h and 5 weeks after exposure to trematode miracidia. The mean temperature selected by susceptible strain snails 2 h post-exposure tended to be lower than that of unexposed controls, although this was not statistically significant. In this strain, at 5 weeks post-exposure, the preferred temperature dropped by 1.9±0.5°C. The resistant strain displayed a significant drop of 1.8±0.6°C 2 h post-exposure. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a drop in mean temperatures selected by snails is due to altered levels of endogenous cytokines such as IL-1 or TNF in association with parasite activation of the snail internal defense system.

The use of an alkane mixture that remains liquid at 77 K to freeze specimens has advantages over the use of a pure alkane that is solid at 77 K. It was found that a mixture of methane and ethane did not give a cooling rate adequate to produce vitreous ice, but a mixture of propane and ethane did result in vitreous ice. Furthermore, the latter mixture produced less damage to specimens mounted on a very thin, fragile holey carbon substrate.