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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht creates nearly identical "designer snowflakes" [snowcrystals.com] by precisely controlling growth conditions such as temperature, humidity, positioning, and air flow. Here's a 60 second explanation [youtube.com] on YouTube.

[EXTENDED COPY]

Here are few articles [caltech.edu] by Libbrecht:

Morphogenesis on Ice: The Physics of Snow Crystals [caltech.edu]
Explaining the Formation of Thin Ice-Crystal Plates with Structure-Dependent Attachment Kinetics [caltech.edu]
An Investigation of Laboratory-grown Ice Spikes [caltech.edu] (DOI: 10.3189/172756504781830015)
The Physics of Snow Crystals [caltech.edu]
The Formation of Snow Crystals [caltech.edu]
A Convection Chamber for Measuring Ice Crystal Growth Dynamics [caltech.edu]
Crystal Growth in the Presence of Surface Melting and Impurities: An Explanation of Snow Crystal Growth Morphologies [caltech.edu]

Original Submission