Catching a Snowflake This is what snowflakes really look like. Snow researchers (seriously, how cool of a job is that?) in Utah have developed a high-speed camera set-up that captures images of snowflakes as they fall from the sky. It gives us a nearly three-dimensional view of these tumbling crystals of frozen water vapor, and may help refine weather and storm predictions. That’s not the coolest part, of course. What I find fascinating is that our image of a “snowflake” as a single hexagonal crystal, with infinitely-varied fractally frozen arms, is completely wrong. More often than not, they’re imperfect clumps of randomly branched ice. The old rule of “no two snowflakes are alike” still holds, it just got a lot more complicated.  (via TechNewsDaily)
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Catching a Snowflake

This is what snowflakes really look like.

Snow researchers (seriously, how cool of a job is that?) in Utah have developed a high-speed camera set-up that captures images of snowflakes as they fall from the sky. It gives us a nearly three-dimensional view of these tumbling crystals of frozen water vapor, and may help refine weather and storm predictions.

That’s not the coolest part, of course. What I find fascinating is that our image of a “snowflake” as a single hexagonal crystal, with infinitely-varied fractally frozen arms, is completely wrong. More often than not, they’re imperfect clumps of randomly branched ice.

The old rule of “no two snowflakes are alike” still holds, it just got a lot more complicated. 

(via TechNewsDaily)

Source: technewsdaily.com

Sphereflakes

I’m pretty comfortable guessing that you haven’t considered the 3D symmetry present in snowflakes before, because who has? We consider them two-dimensional objects, but when you start to imagine a world with exotic planes of snowy symmetry … it gets pretty mind-blowing.

You’ve done it again, Vi Hart.

Previously: Here’s Vi’s original paper snowflake video, which takes them to another level. I even made some!

Source: youtube.com

Snowflake Structure, Formation and Energy Possibilities The humidity and temperature-dependent formation of snowflakes and other ice crystals, a structural formation chart, and how snowflakes are inspiring a small part of nuclear fusion research, via Budding Scientists. Previously: Don’t miss this time-lapse video of ice crystals grown on the tip of a needle, and these gorgeous lab-grown snowflakes!
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Snowflake Structure, Formation and Energy Possibilities

The humidity and temperature-dependent formation of snowflakes and other ice crystals, a structural formation chart, and how snowflakes are inspiring a small part of nuclear fusion research, via Budding Scientists.

Previously: Don’t miss this time-lapse video of ice crystals grown on the tip of a needle, and these gorgeous lab-grown snowflakes!

Source: futurescienceleaders.org

Ice Sculptures On The Tip Of A Needle

What a stunning example of the beauty found in ice crystal growth. The exotic needles in this video are seeded on a wire with an applied voltage (the voltage helps align the water molecules into even crystal patterns).

Ice crystals grow by a sort of rule of “least resistance”. Supercooled water vapor will solidify on a surface as ice, that we all know. But tiny, random bumps on that frozen surface mean some water molecules won’t have to travel as far before settling onto the ice. So on and so on, the bump grows into a branch.

As this process is repeated, branches grow upon branches in a chaotic and semi-random pattern called dendritic growth. There are infinite ways for these imperfections, bumps and branches to form, and so no two crystals (or snowflakes) are identical.

Fantastic piece of work.

(via Co.Design)

Source: fastcodesign.com

Time-lapse video of lab-grown snowflakes

Back in November, you may have seen this cool gallery of snowflake shapes complete with some hints at what forces determine their bespoke beauty. What may not have been clear from that awesome post was people actually study snowflakes, all the time.

This is science, that happens.

How do they do it? The video above offers a look at one way, called a vapor difusion chamber. Physicist Kenneth G. Libbrecht:

While working with this diffusion chamber, we rediscovered a wonderful technique for growing synthetic snow crystals that was first published in 1963 by meteorologist Basil Mason and collaborators. One starts by putting a wire into the diffusion chamber from below, so that small ice crystals begin growing on the wire’s tip. Then apply a high voltage to the wire, say +2000 volts, and voila — slender ice needles begin growing from the wire.

Since I live in Central Texas, this is about as close as I’ll get to any real snowflakes this year, barring some meteorological magic.

(via Boing Boing)

Source: Boing Boing