You just need a wet environment.
"Placing structures on mounds was a special South Florida adaptation to the wet environment," he added.
In order for those zircon crystals to crystallise at that temperature, they had to be in a very wet environment.
Bach-y-Rita's colleagues scoffed when he settled on the tongue, pointing out the difficulty of making the device work in a wet environment.
"The bathroom is such a wet environment, and most things are made of materials that are fighting the relationship with moisture," Mr. Owen said.
They point out that the dry basement atmosphere will actually pull water in from the surrounding soil because water naturally flows from a wet environment to a dry one.
In holding out hope for survival, rescuers prepared to deal with the threats of hypothermia from the cold, wet environment and the bends from the lengthy period of breathing compressed air, providing that the shaft reaches the men.
Puckered skin gives a better grip and may have helped our ancestors uproot wet plants when foraging for food, or be more sure-footed in a slippery, wet environment, they say.
The scientists do not know what kind of wet environment existed at the Opportunity landing site: perhaps groundwater percolating up through volcanic ash, perhaps a lake, perhaps something else.
Wet environment is important for the fastest wound healing.
This ancient wet environment was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or extremely salty.
