Rating: 
Summary: What a Wonderful Book!
Review: I couldn't wait to get this book when I first read about it! The photography is simply stunning. If you've ever wished for a closer look at snowflakes, don't pass this book up. There is a wide variety of images inside, and all are brilliantly done. The field guide to snowflakes chapter will bring out the snowflake watcher in you. The text is great, easy to follow, and you will feel like an expert after reading it. You will be dazzled by their complex simplicity and this book, and you'll never look at snowflakes the same again!
Rating:
Summary: The other reviewers are correct...beautiful photographs!!
Review: I read the other reviews and bought this as a Christmas present for my snowflake loving co-worker. I was not disappointed.This has got to be one of the most beautifully photographed books I've ever seen. I especially appreciated the last chapter, where you find out how these photographs happened. I intend to buy one for myself.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: I received this wonderful book as a Christmas present and I didn't put it down, from the moment I unwrapped it, until I finished reading. It is truly a fascinating piece and one that will have you wishing for snow. Like other reviewers, I thought the photographs were just breathtaking and I was please to see a description of the process used, as well as the equipment, which answered the "How did they do that" question I had throughout the entire work. The science behind the crystals is just as fascinating as the pictures themselves. This book certainly prompted me to dig out my magnifying glass and has me wishing for snow! "Tight Lines!"
~..~..~.. ><((((*>
Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Work of Beauty and Scientific Knowledge
Review: If you are like me, you've often watched snowflakes settle on your glove or car windshield. The delicacy and complexity of their designs have often provided a delight for me in otherwise unpleasant circumstances. Each time I do this, I wish I knew more about how snowflakes are formed, why they vary so much in appearance and what the most spectacular ones look like. The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty more than fulfilled all of those wishes for me. It's hard to know what to praise more: Dr. Libbrecht's remarkable text on snowflake research or Ms. Rasmussen's remarkable images of the snowflakes themselves. I found that either aspect of the book would be more than enough reason to assign this book five stars and praise it to the skies. In the text, you will learn about how we have learned what we know about snowflakes so far and what questions remain to be answered. I was fascinated to see the graphs that showed how temperature and humidity affect the shape of snowflakes so much over small changes in either factor. I was intrigued to learn how scientists have studied this fragile phenomenon (be sure to note how rabbit hair played a part). Scientists are now able to "grow" snowflakes in laboratories to help understand what happens in nature. I also enjoyed the statistical references that explained how it's likely that some water molecules that we each exhaled probably found their way into each snowflake we inspect. The images are terrific both as examples of the text and as worthy objects for contemplation in their own right. I was especially impressed by the way that Ms. Rasmussen used computer enhancements to add color that made illustrative highlights easier to see. As a result, you will often feel like you are looking at a catalog for a fine jeweler rather than a science book. The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty vastly transcends the usual coffee table genre of photography accompanied by some text. Instead, this is a book that could easily be used for science classes. Certainly, many more people would want to study science if it could always be made so interesting and beautiful. Despite the rigor in the text, those who are not interested in rigor will still find the text rewarding. You can simply stop when you think you've learned as much as interests you. As I finished the book, I was reminded of how much more remarkable nature is than our own hand-made attempts to imitate or improve upon nature.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Photos and Inspired Science
Review: 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. One arm of a flake thus does not "know" what the other arms are doing so it can turn itself out identically; they are all simply products of identical environmental history. As can be suspected, snowflakes that develop in the same regions have the same general design. But of course, everyone knows that no snowflakes are identical. Libbrecht considers whether this question is really true, and finds it cannot be answered without close considerations of "What is a snowflake?" and "What is identical?" Snowflake science is here presented clearly and with good humor by someone who obviously loves his work. Libbrecht demonstrates that since a snowflake is a billion billion water molecules grabbed from the atmosphere, some of them are from your own exhalations. He does the calculations to show that about a thousand of the water molecules in every snowflake you see in this book (and of course, any other snowflake) come from you. "Thank you for your contribution," he says, "and keep up the good work." Jaunty and illuminating scientific descriptions, plus the most beautiful pictures of snowflakes ever made, make this a volume that can be valued for eye-catching brilliance or mind-engaging elucidation.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Photos and Inspired Science
Review: 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. One arm of a flake thus does not "know" what the other arms are doing so it can turn itself out identically; they are all simply products of identical environmental history. As can be suspected, snowflakes that develop in the same regions have the same general design. But of course, everyone knows that no snowflakes are identical. Libbrecht considers whether this question is really true, and finds it cannot be answered without close considerations of "What is a snowflake?" and "What is identical?" Snowflake science is here presented clearly and with good humor by someone who obviously loves his work. Libbrecht demonstrates that since a snowflake is a billion billion water molecules grabbed from the atmosphere, some of them are from your own exhalations. He does the calculations to show that about a thousand of the water molecules in every snowflake you see in this book (and of course, any other snowflake) come from you. "Thank you for your contribution," he says, "and keep up the good work." Jaunty and illuminating scientific descriptions, plus the most beautiful pictures of snowflakes ever made, make this a volume that can be valued for eye-catching brilliance or mind-engaging elucidation.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!!!
Review: Since childhood, I have been curious about snowflakes. So,when I heard about this book, I bought one. When I opened it, I was actually overwhelmed by the beauty of the photographs and then drawn into the text. It is highly readable and interesting, but the photographs ????? I can't find a word to describe them. I hate to sound repetitive of other reviewers, but they truly take your breath away!!! I can't imagine anyone who would not find this book fascinating, so I ordered 17 to give as gifts. My grandchildren will love this book, as will their parents. This book is incredible!!! If only I could give it higher than 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!!!
Review: Since childhood, I have been curious about snowflakes. So,when I heard about this book, I bought one. When I opened it, I was actually overwhelmed by the beauty of the photographs and then drawn into the text. It is highly readable and interesting, but the photographs ????? I can't find a word to describe them. I hate to sound repetitive of other reviewers, but they truly take your breath away!!! I can't imagine anyone who would not find this book fascinating, so I ordered 17 to give as gifts. My grandchildren will love this book, as will their parents. This book is incredible!!! If only I could give it higher than 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Snow Crystals
Review: Snow is the most unstable substance on Earth - it is always changing - while forming, falling and on the ground. These images and introduction to snow crystals are excellent. It is advisable to also purchase Bently's book of snowflake photographs. This is an introduction to snow crystals, not a snow crystal science text. The only thing missing are electronmicrophotographs of snow crystals - available on the web. There are many snow science texts available. This book is for fun.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful photos of snowflakes!
Review: Snowflakes are indeed beautiful. Their patterns, often symmetrical, are surprisingly intricate. I'm surprised that more people haven't studied these remarkable objects. Now there is a terrific book on the subject by Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht, with incredible photographs taken by Patricia Rasmussen.
I remember how fascinated I was by Basil J. Mason's article on Snow Crystals in the January, 1961 issue of Scientific American. Now, finally, there's a work on the topic that brings us all up-to-date. It explains what types of snow crystals form at different temperatures and how minor changes in weather conditions as a snowflake falls determine the actual pattern while roughly maintaining the symmetry.
As I see it, there are four major areas a good book about snowflakes ought to try to cover. The first is what snowflakes look like. This book does a superb job, noticeably better even than Wilson Bentley's 1931 book, Snow Crystals. The second is why snowflakes have the patterns they do, and how this enormous complexity originates. Again, this book does a fine job, extending the work of Ukichiro Nakiya by including results of experiments performed in Libbrecht's laboratory. The third is how to make artificial snowflakes. Once again, this book is superb, showing the excellent results of Libbrecht's attempts at making "designer snowflakes." These snowflakes are home-grown at the end of ice needles, a technique that Basil Mason had developed and Libbrecht has improved upon. The fourth should be a reference to some good software that would allow users to produce artificial snowflake designs on their computer screens. The lack of such a reference leads me to suspect that no good software exists yet.
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