Meh, if you want to see really great pictures of snowflakes, checkout "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty." written by Kenneth Libbrecht and photography by Patricia Rasmussen. Libbrecht is chair of the physics department at Caltech and has had a life long passion for snowflakes from his early days in North Dakota. He now studies snowflake formation in his lab. I read it cover to cover and cannot recommend it enough. The book dives into the science of snowflake formation. You can find the book for $4 at Abebooks.
There's a lot of interesting structure in snowflakes that remains hidden in visible light photography.<p>Look up SEM micrographs of 'snow crystals'. You'll find a few universities contributing to the art/science:<p><a href="https://sgil.ba.ars.usda.gov/snowsite/sequentialdata/sequentialdata.html" rel="nofollow">https://sgil.ba.ars.usda.gov/snowsite/sequentialdata/sequent...</a><p>If you're skilled in the art of cross-eyed 3D you can see some here:<p><a href="https://sgil.ba.ars.usda.gov/snowsite/stereo/stereo.html" rel="nofollow">https://sgil.ba.ars.usda.gov/snowsite/stereo/stereo.html</a>
Did not realize this was Nathan Myhrvold at first! Although he's moderately controversial for Intellectual Ventures and famous for Microsoft and Modernist Cuisine, I know him best from the massive dinosaur skeleton in his Lake Washington mansion.<p>While living in Seattle I had a (super, super dumpy) boat and a favorite activity was boating friends by his house to surprise them. A little tricky, but you could clearly see it!<p>Always a treat, but I believe it was gone in the summer in 2019!
Check out Wilson "snowflake" Bentley, he was photographing snowflakes at the turn of the century.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bentley" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bentley</a>
More flakes:
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/1291263@N24/pool/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flickr.com/groups/1291263@N24/pool/</a>
Reminds me of one of my favorite images: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snowflake_300um_LTSEM,_13368.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snowflake_300um_LTSEM,_...</a><p>It's so strange that there are people who use "snowflake" as an insult.
The perfect symmetries of snowflakes always struck me as being strange: how do the molecules at one edge of the flake know what their symmetrical partner at other edge is doing? It is interesting to see that the symmetries are not perfect, making it (somewhat) easier to accept.
I don't know Nathan Myhrvold, and I could be wrong, but my impression is that he's a smart guy, trying to be remembered as the modern Leonardo Da Vinci (cuisine, mosquito laser zappers, etc - the widest intellectual curiosity one can imagine), without a decent chance of succeeding.<p>These endeavors are so bizarre, so "off", so weird and different from each other, that they seem planned and fake to me. Leonardo had genuine curiosity, and no need to show off (except when looking for a job [0]). I feel that Nathan could learn from that.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/leonardo-da-vincis-resume" rel="nofollow">https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/leonardo-da-vincis-...</a>
I'm sure the Culture GCU <i>Arbitrary</i>, which collects snowflakes, approves of this post.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art</a>
Some family/friends published a few children’s books about snowflakes and snowflake photography:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Photographs-Snowflake-American-Makers/dp/1530708044/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Photographs-Snowflake-America...</a><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Snowflake-Science-Activity-Michael-Peres/dp/0764360485/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Snowflake-Science-Activity-Michael-Pe...</a>
Nathan Myhrvold is also the anonymous writer behind "My First Gulfstream" [1] & [2]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1998/10/gulfstream-199810" rel="nofollow">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1998/10/gulfstream-199810</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB90728999776621000" rel="nofollow">https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB90728999776621000</a>
High res photos can be found here.<p><a href="https://modgallery.wpengine.com/collection/" rel="nofollow">https://modgallery.wpengine.com/collection/</a>
If this caused anyone to be interested in what happens to snowflakes after they fall on the ground, The Snow Grain Photo Library[1] has a library of photos of snow in various states of decomposition and metamorphosis.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.snowcrystals.it/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.snowcrystals.it/index.php</a>
What amazes me about Nathan Myhrvold is that he has 850 patents to his name. How is that even possible?
He is 61 years old, and lets say he was working for 40 years.
That a more than 21 patent a year, how much he needs to pay for keeping the patent rights each month?
I guess after 25 years patent expire but still ...
Incredible photos, makes me even more homesick. A few hours now, and I will be taking the train back home for Christmas. Can't wait to see the mountains and the snow!<p>His surname sounds very Norwegian, btw.
On the Hacker News's top stories telegram channel this post has a snowflake emoji near it's name due to getting 100 points in 2 days. Kinda cute.
“photographer Nathan Myhrvold” — wait, he’s also a photographer? Myhrvold is also:<p>- the former CTO of Microsoft
- a Michelin Star chef
- patent troll / business genius
- a working scientist who has published original, peer-reviewed research in the fields of paleobiology, climate science, and astronomy.<p>He has to be one of the most remarkable people to have ever lived.
I feel a duty to point out the white washing. Nathan made his money on the basis of patent trolling, his firm being the world's largest patent troll.<p>Journalists never mention the "where does this persom get the money to spend their time on complex cooking books and unique camera rigs". The answer being "he is a billionaire by taxing every one just a little bit". Like a new age king he spends his tax revenue on vanity projects.<p>Sure none of us pay him much. At most a couple pennies every device. But if you ever wonder why the patent system is so broken: remember his face.