But the fact it propelled American teen idol Apolo Anton Ohno to gold, and sparked wild celebration at the Salt Lake Ice Center, made it all the more galling for the Koreans.

BBC: Russians question their hosts

Prestone uses that brand name on all manner of car care products such as car wax, battery starters, driveway ice-melting salt.

FORBES: Bleeding arm, but no bleeding heart

In experiments on dogs they have found that by pumping liters of ice-cold salt water into their arteries and cooling them down to 59 degrees they can preserve vital organs up to three hours after the heart stops.

FORBES: How to Cheat Death

And now the Arctic's upper layers are getting less dense, for several reasons: melting Arctic glaciers, rising surface-water temperatures, increased precipitation and an absence of salt concentrations resulting from sea-ice formation.

ECONOMIST: The science

Along the way, the moulding and sculpting of ice into different shapes became more sophisticated, incorporating the use of salt and tools.

BBC: The origins of ice sculpting