That slow diffusion process accounts for the mysterious dormant phase.
Less is known about this relatively dormant phase, and Born theorizes that, in fact, it's not a dormant phase at all.
The insect enters a dormant phase (called diapause) that allows it to stay mostly inactive through the winter.
During the autumn season, the plants reach their optimum growth rate, and after that, they enter the dormant phase.
Berliner is using quasielastic neutron scattering to zero in on a key aspect of the dormant phase: the reaction of tricalcium silicate (the predominant compound in the cement mixture) with water.
Particularly mysterious is the 6- to 8-hour "dormant" phase between the initial short period of rapid reaction, when water is first added to concrete mix, and a later period of rapid hardening.
Making matters worse, the only serious rains of the season occurred during four days in late January, just as much of the vegetation was awakening from its dormant phase.
Dr Trevor James, entomologist at the Biological Records Centre: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said: "The harlequin has a preference for buildings, and goes into a dormant phase over the winter time.
The uptick in activity at Brito suggests the project – which many had assumed to have been killed off by funding problems, local opposition and environmental concerns – may be about to move out of a dormant phase, though whether it gets much further may depend more on politics than finance or engineering.
Their active growth phase is followed by a dormant phase, in which they stop producing hair.
Hair normally grows in cycles, but in the defective mice - the follicles had become trapped in the dormant phase of the cycle.
