A Snow Job

   Everyone knows, no two snowflakes can ever be alike. At least that's what we've all been told, right? Would you believe differently if you were told so by a snow researcher? Apparently, Nancy Knight, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado has reported finding two flakes which flouted tradition. Knight is regarded as an experienced snow researcher, and she claims to have collected the specimens, which she says were "virtually identical" at an altitude of 20,000 feet on November 1, 1986.
   While we're on the topic of the white crystals, did you know about Wilson Bentley? Born in Vermont in 1865, he became the first photographer of snowflakes. He first tried to draw snowflakes when he was fifteen, looking at them through an old microscope given to him by his mother. Their complexity, coupled with their quick-melting nature, made the task impossible. Not one to give up, Bentley attached a bellows camera to a compound microscope and succeeded in photographing his first snowflake on January 15, 1885. He went on to record over 5,000 specimens. It is Bentley's work that led to George Perkins, a professor of natural history at the University of Vermont declaring that no two snowflakes are ever alike. All this brings us back to Ms Knight, who published an article titled "No Two Alike?" , including a photograph of her find.
   Let me end off my little look at the crystalline wonders by mentioning my favourite "snow expert", the Archbishop of Uppsala who published a book in the mid-1500's that included more than 20 illustrations of snow crystals. Rather than the hexagonal figures of reality, the good cleric's offerings came in the form of hands, bells and half moons, among others.
What a snow job!