A billowy foam develops as you whip cream, partly because of its fat content. As you whip air into cream, little bubbles of air are quickly surrounded by tiny globules of fat. The fat provides little cushions for the bubbles so they don't break. If the fat is too warm, it softens and is ineffective in its role as a stabilizer. That's why cream that isn't cold enough, is difficult (or sometimes impossible) to whip. To get the best volume, pop the bowl and beaters into the frig along with the cream before beginning to beat.

One teaspoon of unflavored gelatin dissolved & bloomed in warm water added to whipped cream will stabilize the whip & prolong the usage window, before re-whipping is required.   
Whip cream for too long or too much though and you'll need toast because you just made butter.

Alright, this is probably not a scientific term or property.  I cannot find anything to explain the purpose of it either.
So, what is it, well as I was taught during my pastry appenticeship, it is sprinkling gelatin across the surface of cool water to "soften" it prior to heating it and dissolving it.  This is an understandable process when working with sheet gelatin & I can only surmise that it was some sort of hold over by an Austrian Pastry who came to the state to only find powdered gelatin readily available.

While the bubbles of air whipped into cream are surrounded by globules of fat which need to be kept chilled as cold fat acts as a stabilizer, beating egg whites is different because in this case you're dealing with proteins.
Egg white foams are stabilized by proteins which stretch around bubbles of air during beating.  When whites are room temperature rather than refrigerator temperature, their surface tension is lower, so the whites beat more easily and to a greater volume, though their stability many not be as great as that of colder egg whites.  However, keep eggs chilled until just prior to using them, they shouldn't stand for long periods at room temperature.

Concerning "blooming" the gelatin, Cook's Illustrated ran some tests and found that blooming in cool water prior to the heat actually substantially increased the thickening power of gelatin. (Of course, this makes me wonder why Jello skips this step...perhaps they just use so much gelatin that they can do without this step.)

great explanation......

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Good explanation.
I use bloomed gelatin to give me more time to get it right - and I can use skim milk this way.
Makes for a much healthier version.

Great tip! Thanks.

-Jen