Like snowflakes, supporting Science News can take ... When water molecules chill down, they assemble into a myriad of spectacular shapes from simple hexagons to star-shaped dendrites.

Snowflakes are like letters from the sky, each crystal a note describing the atmosphere as it falls to the ground. They float effortlessly, but their creation is one of nature’s most complicated ...

That shape changes even further as they fall through the air. As each snowflake falls, it encounters water vapour in the atmosphere. This has a big effect on its shape. If humidity is low ...

While they all start pretty much the same, once they start crystallizing, it’s true that no two snowflakes are alike. In fact, the number of possible shapes is staggering.