Snowflakes

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I was waiting for the University shuttle the other day, and it was snowing very lightly. The temperature was probably twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

 

 

And the snowflakes were perfect.

 

 

I watched them as they landed on my jacket, one by one. Each was a six-pointed miracle, and all of them were different.

 

 

Did you know that you can actually preserve snowflakes? You can use something called Formvar, or even clear acrylic spray paint. If you do it right, you will have perfect little gems that will last forever.

 

 

(I first read about this in a children’s magazine in the 1960s. I have always wanted to try it. But I know in my heart that never in a billion years would I ever get something like that to work.)

 

 

It’s nice, in any case, to think of nature’s infinite variety: that every snowflake is different from every other snowflake.

 

 

Except – surprise! – it’s not true.

 

 

From Sciencebase.com:

 

 

The short answer is no. Despite what you may have heard some snowflakes are exactly the same shape and size as other snowflakes.

 

 

Of course they are.

 

 

Linus and Lucy knew this as long ago as 1963:

 

 

 

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