Nature
PUBLISHED
A strange video is kicking up a storm online, appearing to show a bizarre dark circle in the middle of a frozen lake. The phenomenon, which occurred somewhere in Utah, appears to have large ice crystals embedded throughout.
As you might expect, numerous theories and guesses have been thrown around, including a rare fungus, fish blood, a viral marketing campaign or students making a prank video. However, one of the more credible sounding explanations suggests it could be the effect of an organism's natural antifreeze protein. These could interfere with the crystallization of the ice, causing the formation of the odd-looking structures.
A nearby takeaway coffee cup, which you can see in the video, is also a prime suspect.
So, what's your theory?
