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The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty Hardcover – 2003

by Libbrecht; Kenneth (Author)

57 customer reviews

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Snowflakes may be an everyday, common subject, but you've never seen them like this! A collection of amazing photography of snow crystals using a unique system designed to take super-detailed micro images of these miniature ice masterpieces, The Snowflake is an extraordinary look at a seemingly ordinary object. The general public is interested in popular science subjects, weather, and amazing photography. The Snowflake has elements of all these, and with its appealing combination of informative text and fascinating photography, there is no other book like it on the market. Author Kenneth Libbrecht, an executive officer of physics at CalTech and the pre-eminent snow-crystal researcher, discusses the physics and mythology of snow and how snow crystals are made. Photographer Patricia Rasmussen presents remarkable color micro-photography of snowflakes, and also discusses the history of snow-crystal micro-photography as invented by farmer Wilson Bentley. WINNER, 2004 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD! (Nature & Environment)

The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty

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Product Details

Hardcover: 112 pages
Publisher: Metro (2003)
ISBN-10: 1435137655
ISBN-13: 978-1435137653
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,317,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1421 in Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Weather
- #2267 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Nature & Wildlife
- #11193 in Books > Science & Math > Environment

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Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars

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Top Customer Reviews

Beautiful Photos and Inspired Science

By Rob Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER on January 5, 2004

Format: Hardcover

It is hard to think of a natural phenomenon that has more intrinsic delight and fascination than a snowflake. Sure, the things pile up and please skiers and dismay drivers, but taken one by one, each snowflake is not only pretty, it has enough complexity and mystery about it to delight any careful observer. In _The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty_ (Voyageur Press), two careful observers have documented what intrigues them about snowflakes. Kenneth Libbrecht is head of the physics department of Caltech, and he not only rushes out with a magnifying glass when it snows, he grows snowflakes artificially in his lab. Patricia Rasmussen is a photographer who started taking pictures of snowflakes with her own equipment and then used Libbrecht's special apparatus. This is a book a little larger than a hundred pages, but the pictures are elegant, and the text tells the current explanations, as far as we now know them (there are still mysteries), of why snowflakes look the way they do.
The famous snowflake pictures of William Bentley inspired Rasmussen to start taking pictures of snow. Bentley's pictures are carefully reproduced white-on-black images, but Rasmussen has experimented with colored light to give multicolored pastels that shine on and through the hundreds of crystals depicted here. There are plenty of the six-armed variety, but also triangular snowflakes, and twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four armed ones, as well as tiny ice crystals shaped like needles, prisms, barrels, or bullets. can form at the right conditions. Different humidity and temperature produces the shapes. For the familiar snowflake, each arm experiences the same microclimate, so each changes in the same way.Read more ›

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Stunning Photographs. Readable, Informative Text.

By mirasreviews HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on December 11, 2003

Format: Hardcover

The first thing that anyone will notice upon opening "The Snowflake" is Patricia Rasmussen's incredible photographs. I am something of a snowflake enthusiast, and I have never seen such stunning photographs of snow before. There are over 100 exquisitely detailed photographs of snow crystals and snowflakes that will take your breath away. Fans of "The Snowflake Man", W. A. Bentley, will love this book. But it isn't just pretty pictures. The photographs illustrate a text by physicist Kenneth Libbrecht. Dr. Libbrecht is a snow crystal researcher, and his fluid prose successfully communicates the depth of knowledge and enthusiasm he has for his subject. "The Snowflake" has eight chapters, all of which are generously illustrated with photographs and most of which are short. The first seven chapters explain how and why snow crystals form the way they do, as well as the history of our understanding of snow. Libbrecht's text is detailed and technical, but it is very readable and easily understood by a lay person. And he moves onto the next topic before you have a chance to become bored by the particulars of the last. Chapter 8, which is by far the longest chapter at 32 pages, is a "Field Guide to Falling Snow". All types of snow crystal, both common and rare, are described and pictured so that the reader will be able to identify just about anything he/she might encounter falling from the winter sky. "The Snowflake" is a thoroughly enjoyable and genuinely inspiring book. Patricia Rasmussen's photographs are a testament to the extraordinary beauty that can be found is such a small natural wonder as a snowflake.Read more ›

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Fantastic book

By A Customer on December 6, 2003

Format: Hardcover

What a wonderful book! I had what I would call
a passing interest in snowflakes -- until
I got this book. Since childhood I had heard that no
two snowflakes were alike. That was interesting.
Well wait until you read this book. Snowflakes
are not just interesting, they're fascinating!
The photographs are amazing.
Just stare at the photograph on page 37 for awhile
and you will be convinced. Look at the extraordinary
detail, the amazing complexity, and yet the perfect
symmetry. Each of the 6 "arms" are the same and yet
so complicated. And then look at a completely
different snowflake on page 50, for example.
Again the complexity with the symmetry is striking.
All arms very much the same but very different from
the 6 arms on the page 37 flake. How do they do that?
You'll have to read the book to find out. And the flakes
are not all about the arms. Stare at the central portion
of the snowflake on page 42 for example. Look
at the exquisite detail in there. To me it looks like 6 insects
feeding at a trough. Just amazing.
One of the most astounding facts to find out is that
you are probably part of each and every snowflake
pictured in the book! I'm talking about part of you
physically -- in every snowflake that falls to
the ground. That stood the hairs up on the back of my
neck. Although this is a great coffee table book,
it's also a book you're going to want to sit down and read.
It makes a great gift to take when you visit someone. It
makes a great gift in general and a particularly good
one during the winter hoilday season. The quality is superb;
it's hard to believe they can sell it for such a low price.Read more ›