The Snowflake
by Kenneth Libbrecht

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Book Reviews of The Snowflake

Book Review: A Stunning Work of Beauty and Scientific Knowledge
Summary: 5 Stars

It's hard to know what to praise more: Dr. Libbrecht's remarkable text on snowflake research or Ms. Rasmussen's remarkable images of the snowflakes themselves. I found that either aspect of the book would be more than enough reason to assign this book five stars and praise it to the skies.

In the text, you will learn about how we have learned what we know about snowflakes so far and what questions remain to be answered. I was fascinated to see the graphs that showed how temperature and humidity affect the shape of snowflakes so much over small changes in either factor. I was intrigued to learn how scientists have studied this fragile phenomenon (be sure to note how rabbit hair played a part). Scientists are now able to "grow" snowflakes in laboratories to help understand what happens in nature. I also enjoyed the statistical references that explained how it's likely that some water molecules that we each exhaled probably found their way into each snowflake we inspect.

The images are terrific both as examples of the text and as worthy objects for contemplation in their own right. I was especially impressed by the way that Ms. Rasmussen used computer enhancements to add color that made illustrative highlights easier to see. As a result, you will often feel like you are looking at a catalog for a fine jeweler rather than a science book.

The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty vastly transcends the usual coffee table genre of photography accompanied by some text. Instead, this is a book that could easily be used for science classes. Certainly, many more people would want to study science if it could always be made so interesting and beautiful. Despite the rigor in the text, those who are not interested in rigor will still find the text rewarding. You can simply stop when you think you've learned as much as interests you.

As I finished the book, I was reminded of how much more remarkable nature is than our own hand-made attempts to imitate or improve upon nature.

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