"Despite substantial, cross-disciplinary interest in the subject as a scientific case study, surprisingly little has been written on the science of snowflakes and their formation. For materials scientists, snowflakes constitute archetypal examples of crystal growth; for chemists, the site of complex molecular dynamics at the ice surface. Physicists can learn from snowflake symmetry and self-assembly; geologists study snow as mineral crystals; and biologists can even gain insight into the creation of shape and order in organisms. In the humble snowflake are condensed many of the processes-many of them still not fully understood-that govern the organization of classical systems at all levels of the natural world. This book by Kenneth Libbrecht-inarguably the world's foremost expert on the subject-will be the authoritative text on the science of snow crystals. It will cover all of the physical processes that govern the life of a snowflake, including how snowflakes grow and why they have the shapes they do. It will also outline techniques for creating and experimenting with snow crystals, both with computer models and in the lab. Featuring hundreds of color illustrations, the book will be comprehensive and is sure to become definitive resource for researchers for years, if not decades, to come"--.

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• One. Snow Crystal Science
  • Complex Symmetry
  • A Brief History of Snow Crystal Science
  • Twenty-First-Century Snowflakes
  • No Two Alike?
• Two. Ice Crystal Structure
  • Ice Crystallography
  • Surface Premelting
  • Ice Energetics
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulations
  • Surface Energy Considerations
  • Snow Crystal Twinning
• Three. Diffusion-Limited Growth
  • Faceting and Branching
  • Free Dendrites
  • Diffusion in Snow Crystal Growth
  • The Spherical Solution
  • Additional Analytic Solutions
  • Solvability Theory
  • Snow Crystal Aerodynamics
  • Order and Chaos
• Four. Attachment Kinetics
  • Ice Kinetics
  • Large-Facet Attachment Kinetics
  • Structure-Dependent Attachment Kinetics
  • Explaining the Nakaya Diagram
  • The Morphological Nexus at -5°C
  • Snow Crystal Cartography
  • Dislocation-Mediated Growth
  • Chemical Vapor Effects
• Five. Computational Snow Crystals
  • A Progression of Snow Crystal Models
  • Spherical Cellular Automata
  • Cylindrically Symmetric Cellular Automata
  • Three-Dimensional Cellular Automata
• Six. Laboratory Snow Crystals
  • Free-Fall Snow Crystals
  • Substrate Support
  • Levitation
  • Continuous Diffusion Chambers
  • Snow Crystal Imaging
• Seven. Simple Ice Prisms
  • Precision Ice Growth Measurements
  • A Tale of Two Experiments
  • Simple-Prism Convergence
• Eight. Electric Ice Needles
  • Snowflake on a Stick
  • E-Needle Formation
  • An E-Needle Dual Diffusion Chamber
  • The Nakaya Diagram on E-Needles
  • Simplest E-Needle Growth
  • An Analysis Example: E-Needles at -15°C
  • E-Needle Vignettes
• Nine. Designer Snow Crystals
  • The Plate-on-Pedestal Method
  • Illumination and Postprocessing
  • PoP Growth Behaviors
  • Identical-Twin Snow Crystals
  • PoP Art
• Ten. Natural Snowflakes
  • Snowflake Watching
• Eleven. Snowflake Photography
  • Finding Snowflakes
  • Optics and Lenses
  • Illumination Matters
• Appendix—list of Variables and Physical Constants
• Bibliography
• Index