As much a work of art as a testament to science, Capturing Snowflakes includes a laser-cut silver snowflake ornament in it’s cover & showcases 430 images of snowflakes captured by the photo-microscope of the world’s leading expert, Kenneth Libbrecht. The snow may seem unvaried to the naked eye, but the microscope reveals an amazing menagerie of beautiful crystalline forms.
Libbrecht has developed creative techniques for capturing images of snow crystals in unprecedented detail. We discover the science behind snowflakes (how they form on a molecular level & the complex process that guarantees each one’s uniqueness). Explore the taxonomy of snowflakes – simple plates & prisms, columns & needles, capped columns, sectored plates, stellar plates, stellar dendrites, triangular crystals, double plates, split plates, split stars & the rare twelve-branched snowflakes. Brilliant quotes about the wonder of snowflakes & the beauty of nature from Aristotle, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir. A breathtaking look at the works of art that gently melt in an instant. Surreal.
