Aug 20, 2012
Stunning images of snowflakes under a (frozen) microscope [20 pictures]
Researchers at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center have gathered samples of snow from around the country and are studying them under a microscope. To keep the flakes in their original shape, they’re viewed on a surface that has been chilled to -170 Celsius, or -224 Fahrenheit. (The microscope they use is understatedly labeled “low-temperature.”)
Here are some of the amazing images coming from their research…
On an interesting side note, man-made snow doesn’t vary in shape like natural snow does, and, in fact, doesn’t even look like natural snow at all when magnified. It’s just little blobs…
(via The Daily Mail)
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Wow! SO beautiful! Our God is awesome.
That he is.
Just what I was thinking.
hahaaaaa
No god had anything to do with this. This is art in nature created by the science of the universe.
If you think there is no God, then explain how the universe came to existence.
Are you implying God explains how the universe came to exist?
Why not make up a different story, like maybe there is no universe at all. Maybe everything you perceive is just an elaborate game created by aliens to entertain themselves. Or maybe, and I’m going way out on a limb here, the universe only exists because you exist. Maybe we’re all inter-dimensional energy that is constantly moving and traveling from one plane of existence to another. Maybe life, and all we see in it is really just a dream.
You might not believe it, but it makes as much sense as a supreme being creating the universe, doesn’t it?
Neither can be proved, so it doesn’t matter.
Really? That one again? You religious people really have no imagination at all, do you? The universe didn’t come into existence because of a god who doesn’t give shit about all the suffering in the world but spends his time one doodling snowflakes… It came into existence because of natural phenomena such as the big bang, which, unlike most of you think, isn’t impossible because there was ‘nothing’ and ‘nothing’ exploded. Quantum mechanics actually proved that the big bang theory can be considered fact because it proved the existence of vacuum, completely empty, space, and in that absolute nothingness sometimes atoms appear. They do disappear too but it proves that something can appear out of nothing, therefore proving a big bang, whether it happened or not, can have occurred therefore again proving there’s probably no god at all.
I find it very interesting that “your” god micromanages the creation of snowflakes while forgetting about the starvation and suffering around the world. Not too awesome in my book.
OMG SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET ABOUT GOD I BETTER FLAME THEM TO SHOW THEM HOW STUPID THEY ARE LOL OMG IDK
If your God is physics that binds the universe together, yours isn’t much different.
God doesn’t “forget.” There is “starvation and suffering around the world” because people sin and because we do evil and brought evil into the world. It’s man’s fault. Do not blame our wrongdoings on God.
…argee!!!
can u imagine no 2 ever being the same? Who else but God?
Starving children in africa? Disease and desertification? Human suffering and the depletion of the environment?
NAW man, snowflakes.
and football – tebow and all that.
Not to distract from the religious debate to follow but this is truly remarkable on any level. Are there any pure mathematicians out there who can explain why these form the way they do and why artificial snow “blobs?”
I’m not a mathematician or a scientist but my best guess would be that when a drop of rain; the 2 hydrogen molecules and 1 oxygen molecule (water) freeze, it’s new state is created as such (snow flake) and is a direct result of the new bond that is formed from the transformation from a liquid to a solid. In addition, that might have to do with the two atomic numbers of 1 from Hydrogen freeze with the atomic number 8, oxygen, they create this magnificent form; a snow flake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen
Thanx John, I was wondering about why the “bonding” of the molecules form certain patterns and if there are any “hard-wired” formulas that dictate the formation of said patterns?
Right Beepage, I think you’re definitely on the right track. I would say yes there probably is in fact a formula that makes this so. I would be interested to know myself. My knowledge on this particular subject is ‘topped out’ at this point haha.
Hey guys, your discussion is far too rational, calm, and informed. If you could incorporate more misspellings, terrible grammar, senseless reasonings, and mindless insults, it would be much easier for me to follow. Thanks.
Look up hydrogen bonds. The polarity created amongst the hydrogens by sharing their electrons to the valence shell of the oxygen creates a weak (compared to an electron bond the hydrogen has with the oxygen) but still very real attractive force with the oxygens of other H2O molecules. Because of the bond angle of two hydrogens on an oxygen, when the temperature lowers these molecules line up in a hexagonal arrangement. This is also what helps give surface tension to water. It’s pretty fascinating. I hope this explanation made sense – I’m remembering back to something I studied briefly 6 years ago so I am bit rusty on the subject.
Yeah, so…a little late reading your answer. Obviously, I have been thinking about it incessantly. ANYWAY, your explanation is helpful. Now, why does artificial snow “blob”? Isn’t it made up of the same “ingredients?”
If you’re not a mathematician or a scientist, you’re in the wrong profession. Unless you’re a teacher. ty
I can spot Whoville!
We are here! We are here! We are here!
Yes!
It WOULD be great to know the scientific explanation behind the intricacy and symmetry of the snowflake! It would serve to enhance my awe of how awesome our God is! He is the ultimate mathematician and scientist.
Guess you don’t bother to read the comments posted before yours, huh?
Thank you..nuff said!!!
Snow is water. Take a small puddle of water and make it smaller and smaller; what do you get? A drop. And what is that shaped like? A sphere. When you pack spheres together, like pool balls for instance, the designs they make are based on what shapes? Triangles and hexagons. Hence, snow comes in 3-, 6-, and sometimes, 12-sided patterns.
As for the complex shapes, you’d have to ask a meteorologist. Apparently, many are super rare and formed by unlikely meteorological conditions. Rest assured, though, it can be explained entirely by science without turning to some deity.
I wouldn’t leave it to science to explain how marvelously your mind works.
Wow, that wasn’t even science. At the molecular and atomic level, you are pretty much completely incorrect… Look up hydrogen bonding and the bond angles of H2O molecules. Not spheres.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond
There’s some science for you
Oh… And I believe in God. And I know science… And have a degree in science…
We exist.
“Oh… And I believe in God. And I know science… And have a degree in science…
We exist.”
Of course you do, there’s a phrase for it – cognitive dissonance.
Okay, just because you can’t explain something doesn’t mean God is present. And just because you CAN explain something doesn’t mean God is not present.
Explained or not, rainbows are beautiful and so is learning more about them.
Marvel at how anything exists at all, shouldn’t we? There may yet be a God. No one knows.
Snowflakes are also beautiful.
I was thinking how “industrial” some of the shapes look at close magnification.
I did not expect some of them to look like roman columns.
It’s bizarre how many of those shapes resemble man-made structures.
And I just heard (and yes, it was a MOVIE) but the comment was “nature doesn’t draw in straight lines” and I thought, what a dumb comment. Yes, she does!
Truly impressive!
It makes me wonder what other unsuspected beauty hides in microscopic objects.
Awesome. Im going to use these pictures as inspiration for a winter clay decoration.
Spaceships.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20, NIV
Fourth one from the bottom looks like a Tie Fighter…
I do believe all of the concepts you’ve offered in your post. They’re very convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are very brief for newbies. Could you please extend them a little from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.