Bubbletrubble
Contributor
@Rainer: You were correct. The abstract did evolve into a paper published in IEEE. There are some nice pics of the thermal mannequin and the experimental setup. I particularly enjoyed the definition of the unit of thermal protection being used (CLO).I fully assume the poster is turning into a paper (the usual path with such things in academia, at least in my field). I don't doubt the findings, though. In any case, few single studies are ever really "conclusive", but this is admittedly strong scientific evidence finding a difference between argon (not a weak argon+air mix you'd get without *some* purge cycles) and air.
So I guess that the hardcore (and affluent) drysuit divers should be using xenon or krypton, eh?