posted June 17, 2007 01:35 PM              

Is it true that no two snowflakes are alike?
Of course, the question would be laid to rest is
someone could succeed in observing two identical
flakes. The person who had the best opportunity for
doing this was Wilson A. Bentley of Jericho, Vermont.
Bentley was a farmer and amateur meteorologist. For 50
years, he dedicated himself to studying flakes of
snow.
Wilson Bentley was born in 1865 near Jericho. He had
almost no formal schooling, but his mother had been a
teacher and he acquired from her a lively curiosity
and a love for nature's minutiae. Drops of water, bits
of stone, or a bird's feather equally excited his
interest. But is was snow that became his lifelong
passion.
On his 15th birthday, Bentley's mother gave him an old
microscope. It was snowing that day, and the boy
succeeded in getting a glimpse of a six-sided
snowflake with the instrument. By the age of 20, he
had perfected a technique for photographing flakes of
snow. At the time of his death, Wilson Bentley had
accumulated nearly 5,000 microphotographs of snow
crystals and had been recognized worldwide as an
expert on the meteorology of snow. In his own
neighborhood, he was known simply as the "Snowflake
Man."
Now back to the orginal question. Bentley surmised
that no two snowflakes in his collection were alike.
That fact was a source of great satisfaction to him.
In the simple snowflake, he stood face-to-face with
one of nature's deepest mysteries, what the Greeks
called "the problem of the One and the Many":How does
any form endure in the face of almost limitless
possibility? The snowflake exemplified for Bentley the
kaleidoscopic balance of order and disorder that is
the basis of beauty in nature and in art.
Twentieth-century physics has made substantial
progress toward understanding the genesis of the
snowflake's form. The hexagonal symmetry of snowflakes
has its origin in the shape of the water molecule
consists of an atom of oxygen and two atoms of
hydrogen. The hydrogen atoms are connected to the
oxygen in such a way that the two hydrogen "arms" make
an angle like the arms on the side of this X. The
angle of the arms ensures that when water molecules
link to form a crystal, the resultant symmetry will be
hexagonal, just as the placement of the holes in the
knobs of a Tinkertoy set determines the symmetry of
the structures that can be built with the set.
Now we turn to the probabilities of combination. A
deck of 52 cards can be shuffled into 10 68 different
combinations. A small Tinkertoy set may have a hundred
pieces; consider, if you will, the huge number of
different structures that could be built with such a
set. A single snow crystal consists of some 10 18(1
quintillion) molecules of water! The number of ways so
many molecules can be arranged into six-sided cystals
is infinite--vastly larger than the number of single
snowflakes that have ever landed on the face of Earth.
The odds are great indeed that no two flakes have ever
been exactly identical!
Science has revealed another surprising aspect of the
snowflakes form. The apparent stability of a crystal
if ice is an illusion. on the atomic scale, the
snowflake is a hub-bub of activity. Electrons leap and
dance. Molecules furiously wave their hydrogen arms.
Crystal imperfections jump from place to place. If you
could shrink to subatomic size and enter a crystal of
ice, you would find yourself caught in a hurricane of
chaos, nature constructs and maintains a crystalline
architecture of delicate beauty.
So what is the answer? In one sense, no two snowflakes
are alike; in another sense, all snowfales are alike.
The staggering diversity of snowflakes is a measure of
nature's potential for novelty and change. The
constancy of the snowflake's six-sided form reassures
us that nature is ruled by law.
Wilson Bentley once wrote, "The farm folks up in this
North Country dread the winter, but I was always
supremely happy, from the day of the first
snowfall--which usually came in November--until the
last one, which sometimes came as late as May." For
the "Snowflake Man," snow was a lifelong lesson in the
way nature's beauty arises from a delicate balance of
law and chaos, fixity and change.
--Chet Raymo
The Old Farmer's Almanac-Guide to Watching the Weather

I was packing, and came across this 2001 guide, it
fell open to the page with this story.

posted June 17, 2007 08:22 PM              

"Little orphans in the snow
With nowhere to call a home
Start their singing
Waiting through the summertime
To thaw your hearts in wintertime
That's why they're singing...

Waiting for a sign to turn blood into wine
The sweet taste in your mouth--turned bitter in its glass

Israel...in Israel
Israel...in Israel

Shattered fragments of the past
Meet in veins on the stained glass
Like the lifeline in your palm
Red and green reflects the scene
Of a long forgotten dream
There were princes and there were kings

Now hidden in disguise--cheap wrappings of lies
Keep your heart alive with a song from inside

Even though we're all alone
We are never on our own when we're singing

There's a man who's looking in
And he smiles a toothless grin
Because he's singing...
See some people shine with glee
But their song is jealousy
Their hate is clanging--maddening

In Israel...will they sing Happy Noel
Israel...in Israel
Israel...in Israel
In Israel will they sing Happy Noel"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOEL lexi

posted June 18, 2007 12:37 AM              

That's very interesting. I found a site where this person ( actually from my home state, Michigan ) photographs snowflakes. Michigan in winter gives him lots to photograph.

Anyway he has pictures of both symmetric and non-symmetric snowflakes. Very pretty to look at.
http://www.markcassino.com/galleries/snowflakes/flake_thumbs.htm

Each of Us a Snowflake
by Emily Warburton

Each of us a Snowflake

We are each of us a snowflake

not two of us the same

Reflections of the endless loving

Source from which we came

Unique in form and beauty

Crystalized at birth

Little flecks of heaven

born to melt into the earth

We are each of us a snowflake

of infinate design

Transitory dancers

on the window panes of time

Unique in form and beauty

No two of us the same

Reflections of the endless loving

Source from which we came

We are each of us a snowflake

a falling star in flight

A travler through the universe

in search of our own light

Unique in form and beauty

No two of one design

Transitory dancers

on the window pane of time.

Snowflakes
by Anna MacPherson

Each one comes in a different light
A different reason a different night
The brightest thing you'll ever know
Love for them will forever grow
Every one has a different face
Each of them their own special grace
It's in our lives they frolic and sing
Just to see them alive is a beautiful thing
They bring us joy they give us love
they're a beautiful creation from God above
They laugh they play, make us smile and gleam
Let's walk amongst them and share their dream
A sparkling snowflake is truly unique
Its your understanding they wish to seek
Open your hands and soon you'll see
What beautiful people these snowflakes can be

posted June 18, 2007 12:58 AM              

Wonder Land!

posted June 19, 2007 01:49 AM            

Dean.

------------------
I realized it for the first time in my life:
there is nothing but mystery in the world,
how it hides behind the fabric of our poor,
browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.

Sue Monk Kidd, "The Secret Life of Bees", p79

posted June 19, 2007 08:52 AM              

Lotus I have a magazine clipping about snowflakes and the man who photographed them on my notice board.

posted June 19, 2007 02:45 PM              

ListensToTrees, you have a clipping on your notice board, hehe, signs everywhere..
TwinSouls, Other Half, no two snowflakes are the same, but they are alike, and all form from the 6 of LOve, woo-hoo! Oh and the Light of One, WOW!

posted June 19, 2007 05:35 PM              

I'm just not sure whether we are all unique in ourselves, being soul mates to each other but actual half to no other.......or whether we were Originally created, in soul, as two halves from One......

I'm going to bed

posted June 19, 2007 08:13 PM              

we are eternally One .. and eternally Two
which encircles us within the magic Three
Of the Holy Trinity
of Miracles
... do you see?"

then our eyes locked
in a deep, deep knowing

we touched noses

and whispered

Magic!

~~
*MAGIC * MAGIC * MAGIC * magic * magic * magic * magic *!

page 1080 of Gooberz

my thoughts...

In Heaven we are 2 and 1 encircled
this circle
to become human
was split in two
male and female human form
destined through time and space
to find One another and become
whole, through Mastership. ...

This is the time that Linda wrote about,
when Twin Souls (your Other Half)
will find each Other, and bring Heaven
on Earth..
That Isis and Osiris find One another
for they are the MOther and Father of
this last Creation, and have gone by
many different names. ...

2in1

NOW! WON!

posted April 13, 2008 01:24 AM            

I love snowflakes...!!!