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The snow may seem unvaried to the naked eye, but . Building on the pioneering work of Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) , Libbrecht has developed techniques for capturing images of snow crystals in unprecedented detail. While wondering at the , find: behind snowflakes, including how they form on a molecular level and the complex process that guarantees each one's uniquenessField notes from Libbrecht's photographic expeditions to the frozen northThe taxonomy of snowflakes and examples of each type: simple plates and prisms, columns and needles, capped columns, sectored plates, stellar plates, stellar dendrites, triangular crystals, double plates, split plates, split stars, and even rare twelve-branched snowflakesQuotations about the wonder of snowflakes and nature from Aristotle, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and more This book is a breathtaking look at the works of art that melt in an instant.