In Bio-Land, traditions differ from those we are used to in our lands. Still, some symbols from parallel dimensions can filter out, appearing there in new, astonishing forms. For instance, look what happens to the snowflakes whirling somewhere above our land, during winter break. Some of them are carried away by the wind and, travelling across decades, they fall right inside the microscope of a curious inhabitant of Bio-Land. He is actually a farmer, living in the late 1800s, named Wilson Bentley. After starting a collection of thousands of snowflakes microphotographs, years later he declares: “Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others”. In fact, he is the first producing and observing images of the stunning shapes making up such tiny yet complex structures.
After collecting thousands of images, Bentley is not able to find any snowflakes resembling one another. Thus, the idea that no two alike exist begins to form, and it is easily made into a metaphor for human diversity. Although some consider that cheesy or simply untrue, turns out that, by the way they form, snowflakes incorporate in their structure so much from their different interactions with the environment that it is almost impossible to find one resembling another.
But how do snowflakes form? In this beautiful timelapse you get a glimpse of the underlying processes.
If you are interested in a captivating and interesting scientific explanation of how such diversity of shapes does emerge, that is provided here, by It’s Ok to be Smart. Turns out the uniqueness claim made on each snowflake is backed by science and motivation relies at the molecular scale.
Who cares how much that applies to people: snowflakes are beautiful emergent structures, and this holds independently of uniqueness. Also, they are extremely ephemeral structures: that makes them even more beautiful to me.
Roberta Bardini