Caltech physicist Ken Libbrecht wrote the book on snowflakes. Actually, several of them. The author of the Field Guide to Snwoflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake posted a HOWTO guide for growing your own snow crystals. (No, they probably won’t look like the “hollow column snowflake” or “triangular crystal snowflake” above that Libbrecht photographed with a custom snowflake photomicroscope. For more of those incredible natural flakes, see this gallery at New Scientist.) From Libbrecht’s Web site:
The parts list for this experiment is as follows:
>One used 20-oz plastic Coke bottle
>Three large-diameter styrofoam cups (or something similar; see below)
>A small kitchen sponge (1/2 inch thick)
>A short length of nylon fishing line (thinner is better; 1-pound test is good)
>A strong sewing needle
>Four straight pins
>One paper clip
>Some paper towels
“Grow Your Own Snowflakes” (via Science Friday)