Ukichiro Nakaya, the Japanese physicist responsible for creating the first artificial snowflake, also created a classification system of 41 different crystal types. Shapes can range from cups to ...

Snowflakes are like letters from the sky, each crystal a note describing the atmosphere as it falls to the ground. They float effortlessly, but their creation is one of nature’s most complicated ...

Get daily updates on the Packers during the season. Though snowflakes come in a bevy of sizes and shapes, the type of snowflakes falling in Milwaukee on Wednesday are probably just what you ...

While they all start pretty much the same, once they start crystallizing, it’s true that no two snowflakes are alike. In fact, the number of possible shapes is staggering.

Our understanding of the molecular dynamics of growing crystals is quite primitive, and it is generally not possible to explain why even simple crystals develop their characteristic shapes. A case in ...