"Snow crystals," Ukichiro Nakaya wrote in 1939, "may be called letters sent from heaven." The Japanese physicist spent his life studying snowflakes, eventually becoming the first to create an artificial snow crystal in the laboratory.
His breakthrough led to a nuanced understanding of how snowflakes form.
Nakaya, however, was not the first scientist to take a close look at snowflakes. The process began as early as 150 BC when Chinese scholar Han Ying wrote about the "contrasts [between] the pentagonal symmetry of flowers with the hexagonal symmetry of snow."
Throughout history, many notable people, including Saint Albertus Magnus, Johannes Kepler, and René Descartes, took an interest in snow and snow crystals.
Centuries of study yielded countless descriptions of snow and illustrations of snow structure.
It wasn't until January 15, 1885, however, that a snowflake was photographed. Using a process involving black felt backgrounds he developed on his family's Vermont farm, Wilson Bentley was able to capture the ephemeral crystals on film.
He went on to take thousands of photographs of snow crystals, paving the way for advanced taxonomic studies of snow.
Bentley described snowflakes as "tiny miracles of beauty" and snow crystals as "ice flowers." He was the first person to argue that no two snowflakes are alike.
When Ukichiro Nakaya set out to photograph his own ice crystals Bentley's book, Snow Crystals, served as an inspiration.
For the conclusion of the story in slide show form tick the title.
Down under the ground and/or up above it, crystals are amazing!
Have a great night!
No comments:
Post a Comment