Remember when your mother told you not to eat yellow snow? After reading this scoop, you might also want to avoid the fresh fluffy white stuff — particularly the French variety… Dr Brent C. Christner of Louisiana State University and his colleagues recently investigated the particles (called “ice nucleators”) that cause snow and rain droplets to form. While testing snow from Antarctica, France, Montana and the Yukon, Christner’s team found that up to 85% of these nucleators consisted of bacteria, with the French sample containing the most. But this was no Yoplait: the bacteria were primarily Pseudomonas syringae, which infects tomatoes and beans. While this thought might gross you out, there’s actually no need to splash on disinfectants after a snowball fight, since the bacteria is harmless to humans. Indeed, eliminating this bacteria (which some other scientists want to do) might just lead to a reduction in snow and rain.

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