A winter wonderland calls to mind piles of fluffy, glistening snow. But to reach the ground, snowflakes are swept into the turbulent atmosphere, swirling through the air instead of plummeting directly ...

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 ...

Individual snowflakes have unique, intricate patterns, but the complicated way in which they fall appears to be universal. Normally, when an object falls to the ground it picks up speed until the ...

With a camera-equipped microscope of his own making, Kenneth G. Libbrecht shoots some of the world’s most stunning photographs of snowflakes. Since October, four of the physicist’s images have adorned ...

PASADENA — In a cozy lab on a campus dotted with palm trees, physicist Kenneth Libbrecht is busy building the world’s biggest snowflake. It’s a feat impossible in nature, where fragile flakes form in ...