Kenneth G. Libbrecht He is a physicist and professor at California Technological University (Caltech), where he studies the molecular dynamics of crystal growth. This includes crystals of all types, although their specialty is those that make up snowflakes. Such is his passion for this discipline that he has even come to make snowflakes himself, like a true artist.
Show what you do on a web page, in which he disseminates his work, but also teaches some tricks for those who want to imitate him. Start with the simplest, teaching how to make paper snowflakes, but then the difficulty increases until he tells how he manages to create real ice crystals with beautiful structures.
It is complicated and requires very expensive instrumentation. However, in the future it plans to add some somewhat simpler procedures to the page. Plus, it shows how you can preserve a snowflake forever, using only superglue, a small paintbrush, and a lot of patience. Seeing how much he knows about snowflakes, it’s no wonder he was the Disney consulting scientist for the creation of Frozen.
The scientist who knows how to make snowflakes
Snowflakes do not form when water freezes. That, as Libbrecht explains on his website, is known as sleet.
In reality, snowflakes form when water vapor condenses directly to form ice crystals that group around a nucleus, forming a hexagonal structure. This can vary, depending on many conditions. But it is always usually a six-armed snowflake, more or less symmetrical.
All this is something that happens in nature, when humidity and temperature conditions They are the right ones. But it can also be emulated in the laboratory. Libbrecht considers himself an artist. He is the only one in the world who has tried to make snowflakes and who, in fact, has very different structures. They cannot be changed beyond the basic structure, but you can make some modifications and even play with the light so that they look different colors.
The basis of their work consists of dropping many basic hexagonal ice crystals onto a sapphire surface. Once there, humid air blows around it and cameras capture in real time how the snowflake grows little by little. It does all this at a very low temperature, so it uses a recirculation refrigerator rated at 5,000 dollars. It also uses several temperature controllers, each costing $2,000, and equally expensive hardware, which allows it to follow the process and photograph the results.
If you can’t make them, at least keep them
Making snowflakes the way he does is complicated and expensive. But we can keep one if we live in a place where it usually snows.
To do this, it is necessary to use slide and coverslip like those used with microscopes. They can be purchased online and are not very expensive.
These crystals must be kept very cold, but without snow falling directly on them. Once they are at the right temperature, a dark cloth or cardboard, also cold, is used and placed directly under the snow rain. They should never be picked up from the ground, because there their structures are already disorganized. Once a few snowflakes have been collected, they are looked at under a high-magnification magnifying glass and the ones they want to keep are selected, to pick them up carefully with a small brush.
Once this is done, they are dropped onto the slide and covered with a drop of superglue. Then, carefully, a coverslip is placed on top. There may be a drop of air left, but that’s okay. Once this is done, we now have our snowflake preserved. Of course, it is important to do everything on the street, at the temperature of snow, and be careful with the heat of your hands and even your own breathing. If the snowflakes keep falling apart, maybe we should try a colder day.
On his website, this physicist also explains how to photograph these structures. He even warns that he will soon explain how to make snowflakes in a simpler way. We will all be expectant; Well, without a doubt, it must be a most entertaining activity. After all, not everyone lives in a climate that allows them to preserve snowflakes. Better to make them from scratch.