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Snowflakes are intricate,
beautiful, mysterious,
and totally captivating.
But for all their complexity -
and endless variety -
the structure of a snowflake
can be explained
by a few universal laws of nature.
Laws that explain everything
from snowflakes to galaxies.
Let's start at the beginning.
What is a snowflake?
Or, to use its more technical name,
a snow crystal?
A snow crystal forms
up in the clouds
when water vapour meets
little specks of dust or pollen.
This forms its tiny hexagonal heart.
The tips stick out and are rough.
This attracts water molecules.
And then more water molecules.
And then more.
These form the branches
of our snowflake.
The size and shape of these branches
depends on the exact temperature
and humidity
that the snowflake meets
on its journey through the clouds,
pulled down by the force of gravity.
Each one takes a very slightly
different route -
meaning no two snowflakes
are quite the same.
When a snowflake
lands on your sleeve,
it has been on its own, totally
unique, journey to reach you.
Before melting away in a moment.
Way back in 1611, on a bitterly cold
January morning in Prague,
a snowflake landed on the sleeve
of mathematician Johannes Kepler.
And it got him thinking:
"Why do snowflakes have six sides?"
Kepler's breakthrough was his
theory that this hexagonal pattern
is the most efficient use of space.
Whether it's a honeycomb
within a beehive.
Or piles of stacked cannonballs.
Or a delicate, transient snowflake.
It took 400 years -
400 years! -
for his theory to be proven.
What Kepler didn't know at the time
is that each molecule of water,
or H2O, is made up of two hydrogen
atoms and one oxygen atom.
As the water molecules
cluster together when they freeze,
the angle between the hydrogen atoms
is always,
approximately, 105 degrees.
And that gives us the six sides.
At its heart,
a snowflake is always a hexagon.
But it can grow into all sorts of
weird and wonderful shapes.
Long and thin, like a pencil.
Sharp like a needle.
Cylindrical like a bullet.
Round like a cup.
Or, just occasionally, triangular.
The truth is though, most snowflakes
are kind of...well, blob-like.
If you speak to
a snowflake photographer -
there are just a handful
in the world -
they'll tell you it takes
days and days out in the cold
to get that "money shot".
And the conditions have to be
just right -
between minus 15
and minus 13 degrees.
But ever since Wilson Bentley,
a farmer from the US state
of Vermont,
painstakingly took the first photos
of stunning snowflakes in 1885,
we've been hooked.
Scientists have shown that symmetry
is incredibly pleasing
to the human brain.
Snowflakes are all
radially symmetrical,
which means you can cut them
into identical slices, like a cake.
Shells, flowers, starfish,
even spiral galaxies,
like the Milky Way,
share this type of symmetry.
And nature has one last trick
up its sleeve.
Snowflakes aren't actually white.
They're clear,
but they have lots of edges,
and this scatters the light,
making them appear white.
Each snowflake is a microcosm
of the laws of physics.
Gravity makes it fall.
Electromagnetism dictates its shape.
And you've got symmetry.
It's the same with the stars,
and solar systems, and planets.
And with us.
When you look at a snowflake,
you can read its history.
Its own unique story.
The experiences it encounters
shape it into what it is.
Just like us, really.
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