Blob Blog

Snow Under A Microscope

“Every little girl has got the galaxy inside her/ funny how we always told the very same tales.”
Akira The Don, We Are Not alone

“No idea’s original, there’s nothing new under the sun.”
Nas, No Idea’s Original

These are all images of snowflakes, under varying degrees of magnification. I have been collecting them for a few years now, and they never fail to amaze and inspire me.

When, on ‘We Are Not Alone’, I say, “Every little girl has got the galaxy inside her,” I mean it literally, as well as figuratively.

If you have any to add, please leave them in the comments.

BLAOW!

— By Akira The Don on Saturday, December 18th, 2010

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  • http://twitter.com/RaydomeGrimm Aidan Graham

    Woah! They’re wonderous things, beautiful!

  • wdlp

    It’d be amazing if nature could produce such perfect patterns, sadly this looks to be some alien plot to drown us all using synthetic rain.
    Luckily they appear to have chosen the wrong time of year for such an attack…

    Praise Jesus!

  • Chirazhill

    wow, is’nt snow a devine creation? ( except when its dashed at your head with a stone hidden in the middle! )

  • bill

    cool!

  • Denisefarr1981

    Freakin incredible

  • Denisefarr1981

    Freakin incredible

  • Zigthuszag

    Who needs a God when science can blow you’re mind.

    • MrMobar

      God blew your mind with science

      • jmn

        why would god waste time making intricate designs in snow that can’t be seen without a microscope? he doesnt have better shit to do? what is he a god damn arts and crafts major?

        • KarateThePig

          If there is a God, which I believe there is one, He sort of has all the time ever to do whatever the crap He wants to.

          It’s fine to have a different opinion, but please don’t have a small mind about it.

        • Jeremy

          He didn’t make any designs. This is what a snowflake looks like naturally under a microscope. All he did was look at it and take a picture.

        • Ndsfanboy4ever

          Well there was no such thing as time before God created it. He didn’t waste time because there was none.

        • LMR

          There is a wonderful, mathematical design to nature. It’s even more amazing to think that a God would design laws to govern his creation. Why would he create a nonsensical world without symmetry? It would not reflect his power, beauty, or might.

          That’s like asking why a bride would pay so much attention to the little things in her wedding, like only the major things mattered. To God, all things are seen and planned

    • http://twitter.com/murbark Murray Barker

      so…science created snow?

      • Jaitsu

        Yyyeah, that would be the implication

      • Morvran

        Scientists may create but science itself creates nothing; Science is a process by which we (the human race) gain knowledge. These images were created in the pursuit of knowledge, hence: “Science can blow your mind”. God created nothing because god is a fictional character.
        F-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-L C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R.

        • LMR

          Such a strong comment for someone with no proof their their own opinion – except for the argument that “the other side has no proof”.
          Pretty weak – especially when believers claim that they have had personal experiences with their Lord. All atheists can do is say that they themselves have not – and since they have not, it is impossible for anyone else to. And if they don’t experience it – it must not be real. (logical??)

          If the only truths we accept, are the things that we can personally sense, then we are ignorant.

          What is the reason why an atheist would ever try to convert a Christian? To help or hurt?

          How can telling someone that there is only science, and that they are only worth their reproducing powers, and that they have no objective value considered helping them? In an atheistic world – we only have subjective worth. We would have value based on health, age, nationality, beauty, success, talents, wealth, or whatever the government defines as value… In that kind of world – racism, murder, the holocaust, etc cannot be considered evil so long as each individual believes that the ones they are oppressing have no worth. THAT is what a society without a God looks like. Look at abortion – humans being murdered because their value is subjectified to the mother’s desire for them. But we would consider it wrong for that same mother to have her toddler murdered if she suddenly stopped wanting it, because the government has said it is wrong.

          Well Hitler didn’t believe in God, he didn’t believe that humans have objective value, he believed that humans only have subjective value, he was the government which means that he had the right to define others’ worth, which meant that the holocaust was alright… right? Or was it only wrong in our OPINIONS. When everything is an opinion, and there is no firm TRUTH – the world is chaos.

          “all things are passing”

      • Salen

        The atmosphere created snow. Science just holds the atmosphere together.

  • Steven

    From the ones dancing around trying to make rain to the other ones praying for miracles, people always look to “God” when they don’t understand how something works. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

    The symmetry sure is beautiful in those snowflakes, though.

  • Eekaj

    Seems like the magnification needs to be at a certain level for best visual , just like sound at the perfect pitch etc

  • Matt

    I find this very crazy because I can relate it to a very odd experience I had when I was younger. I’m 22 right now, however when I was in middle school about 8th grade I believe. In the morning I kind of had a very weird thing where I kept hearing someone whisper my name. At first I thought it was my friends messing with me, but I could not manage to find anyone hiding around the bus stop. So then I go on with my day, but now on my way home getting off the bus stop everyone walked there separate ways. I was passing my friend Caine’s house as I stopped to notice a piece of dirt on the ground but looked like it was cut in a perfect design. I looked around to see if any of my friends were still around but seen no one. So I tried picking it up to examine it. As I pick it up I notice right away how delicate the design was, but like my clumsy ass I drop it. Then I couldn’t believe my eyes. It split in two exact perfect designs like each other on the ground. And I swear to you I was not on any drugs of any kind or even did I know about many kind of drugs at that time and I don’t really know if the experience earlier in the day had anything to do with that. So back to my story as I seen the design of “dirt” split like that I was kind of freaked out and taken back, yet I wanted to experiment with it. I pick one of the two pieces back up and drop it to see if it would break perfectly again and like you would guess it did. I can’t explain or even guess as to how this was possible. I have never seen anything like it in my life. And lastly the only way I can describe the designs are that they looked exactly like these snow designs. Maybe connection I don’t know but probably not. I even considered that these pics could be fake, thinking about my experience when I was younger comparing it to this kinda makes me think about it more. People don’t believe me and you might not either but I figured it would be interesting to share that story if anyone might have something similar that might of happen like that.

    • Michael

      uhh..ok

      so, you start hearing voices, then you start hallucinating?

      go see a doctor man

    • Salen

      Er, yes. I believe they are called fractals. They are found everywhere in nature…

    • Johnny Tsunami

      that’s a really cool story, i don’t know why people are acting like it’s ridiculous. i’m glad you posted that.

  • Onetwo

    matt, wth are you talking about

  • Matt

    nvm just dis regard what i said …..i was trying to make the point that the pictures of the small snow particles looked like the weird thing i seen when i was younger…i shoulda just been brief or just not posted…sry bout that

  • Cool

    matt your being dumb

  • Dylan

    Thats what the internet is for Matt. Don’t apologize, interesting story. I wonder if the dirt clump was frozen in any way?
    Anyways cool pics, wish I had a huge nice microscope to look at stuff with 7000x magnification. I’d be ripping the bong & looking at everything all the time!

    • Sam

      Lmao dude, yesss.

  • Anonymous

    totally sweet.

  • Dg

    Dis is gay is hell

    • Anonymous

      You’re a dumbass.

  • Sickmuseband

    Dg. Learn how to read and see outside your own hand and u might be impressed by something that is not on MTV. Read a book

  • Phil

    Just fantastic, thanks.

  • Phil

    Just fantastic, thanks.

  • Phil

    Just fantastic, thanks.

  • daxmax

    Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New International Version, ©2010)
    9 What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.

    • Anonymous

      Someone’s never played Gran Turismo 5.

      • http://twitter.com/ZenPyramid ZenPyramid

        …yeah daxmax, sounds like you’ve been playing too much Reach…

    • Anonymous

      Someone’s never played Gran Turismo 5.

    • murmle

      thank you for the clarification. i heard that in a poem somewhere a long time ago. guess that proves itself. i love snow.

  • R_klysma

    Deze site is top!

  • R_klysma

    Deze site is top!

  • Bob

    nanomachines

  • StevO

    Two words. Prove it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Lala

    (“there is nothing new under the sun”), in Ecclesiastes 1:9 – not NAS… there is nothing new under the sun

    • Sandra

      Stop looking at that book, now. He said, “Prove it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

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  • Tesha21980

    WOW!!!

  • 0583257

    God is the greatest artist there is! No matter how BIG or microscopically small, everything is PERFECT! :D

  • Myesha

    This is simply phenomenal! They look like structures! I wouldn’t be suprised if there’d be snowflake-inspired structures :3

  • Meanashell

    Iim amazed I was getting in my car yesterday and I noticed that they look that way that is so beautiful

  • Dann Stco 95

    WOW

  • Anonymous

    God doesn’t exist.

    • Shitstorm250

      ur the man

    • GOD

      O RLY…?

    • GOD

      O RLY…?

  • Ravenjane80

    That was mindblowing. How wonderful and wondrous. Thank you for taking these photos and sending them out to us. How do you prevent the snowlfakes from melting while you set up the camera to take the photo?

  • Ravenjane80

    That was mindblowing. How wonderful and wondrous. Thank you for taking these photos and sending them out to us. How do you prevent the snowlfakes from melting while you set up the camera to take the photo?

  • Jeannepinckney

    quite amazing and rather beautiful, who knew?

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  • Icarus

    Amazing!! It only shows that this world and us, humans did not exist as product of random and chaotic phenomenon as most evolutionist and atheists claim.Rather, it is a product of an organized complexity that is Creation. Indeed “God does not play dice with the Universe.”

    • NRPR

      Why do you have to ruin something so beautiful by saying something like that? There are plenty of things in nature that look ‘designed’ but aren’t. And the processes by which they come into being are far more exciting and awe-inspiring than simply saying ‘God made them’.

    • Lee

      It doesn’t show anything of the kind. You see a pattern, you don’t understand how it was created, therefore God did? Muppet.

  • Mark

    I’ll take a punt on the fact that if there is a god, he’s one massive cunt, send me to hell bitch, I reckon I’ll dig it!

    • GOD

      DONE…!

  • Jason

    As beautiful as snowflakes are, they’re fractals, and fractals can be made via mathematical equations. That means you (w/ enough knowledge of math) can make your own, unique infinite snowflake, just like your so-called ‘god’ can. And for those curious, look up Koch’s snowflake and you’ll see there’s nothing ‘magical’ about them, they just look pretty.

  • http://www.cocktailsatnaptime.blogspot.com EmmaK

    Absolutely amazing images. Thaks for sharing them.

  • Thomas C Anawalt

    If God made it, it’s beautiful. If God doesn’t exist, it’s beautiful. If someone saying either of these things ruins how beautiful this is, you’re just plain blind. Get a life.

  • Danielle

    I really really enjoyed this post…I always wonder about snowflakes…I’ve shared it on my personal facebook and also on Twitter. Thanks!

    • Anonymous

      You’re very welcome Danielle!

  • Geek12345

    Akirathedon, magnificent! How did you get the snow to sit still? Did you apply a coating and then take a microscope shot of the coating (gold coating,etc?) Who built the snowflake and what was he/she trying to prove by making it so amazingly complex and beautiful?? I am impressed.

    • http://twitter.com/MORPHINE777 Ana Maria

      GOD built it to show us what unique nature and planet we have…but instead of taking care of it we chose to destroy it!!! 

      • Wrongright

        Tell your god thanks for the incurable cancer, too.

  • Paulh

    Don, where dis you get these photos? We’d like to get permission ot use them in an educational building kit.

    Paul Hildebrandt
    Zometool
    303-880-9152
    paulh@zometool:disqus.com
    http://www.zometool.com

    • Anonymous

      All over the place, over the years. I don’t know the OG source, I am afraid…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Fliper-Lahtin/100001820650353 Fliper Lahtin

    пипецки круто ,хоть инлгда наука бывает не только нудной,интересной но и красивой 5+

  • Yup

    All this fuss about a snowflake.Why does everything need an explanation? Can’t it be simply beautiful, ugly or interesting? Who cares who’s right, it’s nature whether science or god, it’s fucking cool is it not? Chill out, enjoy it while you can.