Mysteries of the cold: the snowflake expert who fears a warmer world

Dr Kenneth Libbrecht has unpacked the riddles of 'capped column' and triangular snowflakes - but outside his lab, the best specimens are becoming rarerFrom crystalline columns to fern-like stars, snowflakes come in an assortment of shapes and patterns. The most intricate of all fall when the cold is so biting, only the most dedicated observer would linger to study them. But as temperatures warm, these ice crystals are likely to get a lot less interesting, the world's leading snowflake expert says.Dr Kenneth G Libbrecht grew up in North Dakota, where snow is the main form of precipitation between November and March, but it wasn't until he moved to southern California that he began to study how snowflakes form their myriad complex shapes. "I was interested in how crystals grow and form patterns, which led me into snowflakes because ice makes very interesting patterns as it grows," he says. Continue reading...