Snowflake Gallery: No Two Alike, of Course

[pokerfan]

Photographs of real snowflakes reveal an even more amazing variety than you might have expected.



Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor of physics at California Institute of Technology, photographs snowflakes in the field and in his lab. Studio-type lighting, even outdoors, brings out angles, texture and color that are otherwise hard to spot. Click to enlarge.

http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?gid=35

[CrispyQ]

1. I'm about to go shovel several billion of them!

Thanks for posting! Gorgeous shots! Incredible variety!

K&R for a great winter holiday thread.

[MineralMan]

4. I'm done with shovelling for the day. But tomorrow's another day.

And Saturday is yet another day. Looks like my work is cut out for me. I have to say, though, that I did not notice the beauty of the individual snowflakes in the shovel.

[MineralMan]

2. It's a miracle. Only a deity could do that...

Oh...wait...I forgot about crystallography. Never mind. As you were...

[Recursion]

3. No two of *anything* are alike (except particles I guess)

Why is it always snowflakes that people say that about?

[MineralMan]

5. And Gingers. Gingers are all clones with no souls.

I read that somewhere.

[Recursion]

6. Even clones are different from each other.

[MineralMan]

8. Yeah? Tell that to my former girlfriends Mary and Coleen,

from days of yore. In all things that matter, they were identical. :rofl:

[jberryhill]

13. Lol, true

When the kids were younger, I used to point out unexceptional things on long car drives and say, "Look at that <whatever>! It's the largest one of its kind!"

It's all in how you define "kind".

[Warpy]

7. Snowstorms were the best part about getting a kiddie microscope

when I was eleven. I learned after the first snowstorm to put the microscope and pack of slides out on the utility porch overnight before a storm so the flakes would last long enough to get them under magnification. Add the polarizing filter and some of them were truly spectacular.

It's a bit too late this year, but I strongly suggest a microscope as a present for any curious kid over eight. They'll have a blast with it and it will never get old.

[MineralMan]

9. An excellent recommendation. I'd expand it to specify

a stereo microscope. There are some quite good ones these days under $100. They're much more fun, and you can study tiny living critters in 3D.

[shireen]

10. wonderful idea!

wish i had a deck so i could do something like that. All i'd need is a cheap but working microscope off Ebay. Getting the temperature of the instrument lowered so it won't melt the snowflake is critical.

(BTW, there are some really good microscope deals on Ebay, if you know how to be careful about selecting the instrument and seller -- using some tips from the yahoo microscope group, i got really nice used Nikon and Meiji microscopes.)

[Warpy]

11. Put it in a trash bag

in a trash can. Nobody will touch it.

[Lochloosa]

12. So that is what one looks like!. I love Florida

[kestrel91316]

14. The side view one looks like a sewing machine bobbin!