Magnificent Snowflakes

Ovog vikenda sneg je svetlucao posebno blistavo, kao dijamantski. Gvint je u tome sto je temperatura bila takva da su kristali pravili formu pravih pravcijatih pahulja, onakvih kakve zamisljamo pri samoj pomisli na rec - PAHULJA.

Evo kako to dijagrama morfologije pahulja iz jedne od knjiga gospodina koji je centralna figura ove price, a ako vam treba jos nesto popularne nauke, voila, tekst o dizajniranju pahulja.



Dugo na prozorima nisam videla one prave kristalne tvorevine, predivne kao iz nekih staaarih ruskih crtaca sto traju i traju. Kao Crveni cvetic. Ili onaj jezivo ledeni i cudesno privlacni film Snow Queen, nastao po prici Snedronningen Hansa Kristijana Andersena 2000. godine. Sama kraljica Danske, Margrethe II ucestvovala je u njegovom stvaranju. Kaj i Gerda... ne mogu ni da se setim, nesto neko dete se zaledi, pa ti bude jezivo kad si mali. Ali ne brinite, ljubav sve to otopi i bude ok na kraju. A i prelepo izgleda, nekako ovako:



Nego da se vratim samim ledenim kristalcicima. Kada sam se, pre nekoliko godina, divila tim cipkama na prozorima, nesto sam ih guglovala i setim se sada tih neverovatnih fotki. Iako je gospodin Bentlej (Wilson A. Bentley) napravio prvu ozbiljnu kolekciju fotografija pahulja, ispostavlja se da je najveci doprinos u oblasti istrazivanja ledenih kristala, a narocito strukture pahulja dao Kenet Libreht (Kenneth G. Libbrecht) profesor fizike na Caltech Univezitetu (California Institute of Technology).

Na njegovom sajtu (presmesno tehnicki sirovom s obzirom na romanticnu dirljivost oblasti kojom se bavi) moze se pronaci nekoliko galerija fotografija dobijenih snimanjem fotomikroskopom posebno konstruisanim za fotografisanje pahulja. On hvalata prirodne ali i dizajnira pahulje, stvara vestacke u kalifornijskoj laboratoriji. Cetiri od njegovih fotografija USPS je 2006 objavio u formi marki i stampao ih u tirazu od oko 3 MILIJARDE komada. Evo samo nekih, plus opisi na sajtu NewScientist:





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Knjige Kena Librehta:
* najlepse izgledajuca korica - The Snowflake
* pa jedna totalno drugacijeg naslova - Snowflakes
* jedna sa umetnickim zanosom - The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album
* jedan mini must - The Little Book of Snowflakes
* i moj omiljeni naslov, knjiga o pahuljama namenjena eksploracijama na terenu - Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes

all images by Mr. Libbrecht, except Snow Queen ones

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This weekend, the snow sparkled particularly shiny, like a diamond. It's all in the temperature, being at such level that it made the crystals create forms of true snowflakes, the ones we imagine at the very thought of them.

Here’s the snowflake morphology diagram as given in one of the books by the gentleman who’s the main character of this story, and if you’d need some more popular science, voila, a text on snowflakes design. see image

I haven’t seen those proper crystal shapes on the windows in a long time, as gorgeous as if from some ooooold Russian cartoons which last and last. Just as the Red flower. Or that creepily cold and miraculously attractive movie Snow Queen made in 2000 and based on the Hans Christian Andersen’s Snedronningen story. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark herself participated in its creation. Kai and Gerda… I can’t even remember, like, one of the children gets frozen, and it gets creepy when you’re a little kid. But worry not, the love melts it all and all ends fine in the end. And it also looks beautiful, something like this: see images

But, let me go back to the little ice crystals. While admiring them several years ago, I did some googling and I just thought of those incredible photos now. Although Mr. Bentley made the first serious collection of the snowflakes photographs, it comes out that the greatest contribution in the field of ice crystals research, especially in the field of snowflake structure, was given by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, a professor of physics at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

On his website (overly funny technically wise and considering the romantically touching nature of the field he works in) one can find several galleries of photographs, captured by the photomicroscope, specially constructed for snowflakes photographing. He captures the natural ones, but also designs snowflakes, creates artificial ones in a Californian laboratory. Four of his photographs were published in 2006 by USPS in the form of stamps and printed in 3 billions of copies. Here are just some of them, plus descriptions at NewScientist website: see images

The books by Ken Libbrecht:
* the best looking cover - The Snowflake
* and then one with a completely different title - Snowflakes
* one with the artistic ecstasy - The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album
* one “mini must” - The Little Book of Snowflakes
* and my favorite title, the book about the snowflakes and for the terrain explorations purpose - Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes