[Rockhounds] These Are the Highest Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Snowflakes

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

The first chill of a winter storm is enough to send most people indoors,
but not Nathan Myhrvold. The colder the weather, the better his chances are
of capturing a microscopic photograph of a snowflake. Now, nearly two years
in the making, Myhrvold has developed what he bills as the “highest
resolution snowflake camera in the world.” Recently, he released a series
of images taken using his creation, a prototype that captures snowflakes at
a microscopic level never seen before.

Myhrvold, who holds a PhD in theoretical mathematics and physics from
Princeton University and served as the Chief Technology Officer at
Microsoft for 14 years, leaned on his background
<http://www.nathanmyhrvold.com/index.php/about/cv> as a scientist to create
the camera. He also tapped into his experience as a photographer, most
notably as the founder of Modernist Cuisine
<https://modernistcuisine.com/about/>, a food innovation lab known for
its high-resolution
photographs <https://modernistcuisinegallery.com/collection/> of various food
stuffs
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-spectacular-cutaways-give-you-an-insiders-view-of-your-food-6948699/>
published
into a five-volume book
<https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=pd_bxgy_img_3/140-8585420-6846223?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0982761007&pd_rd_r=b48f5a9a-0623-4a76-aa41-650a7b21106b&pd_rd_w=b1Ikg&pd_rd_wg=kFJim&pf_rd_p=f325d01c-4658-4593-be83-3e12ca663f0e&pf_rd_r=6H32QAN0MNC00AS331B5&psc=1&refRID=6H32QAN0MNC00AS331B5>
of
photography of the same name that focuses on the art and science of
cooking. Myhrvold first got the idea to photograph snowflakes 15 years ago
after meeting Kenneth Libbrecht, <https://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/> a
California Institute of Technology professor who happened to be studying
the physics of snowflakes.

“In the back of my mind, I thought I’d really like to take snowflake
pictures,” Myhrvold says. “About two years ago, I thought it was a good
time and decided to put together a state-of-the-art snowflake photography
system...but it was a lot harder than I thought.”

Photographing snowflakes is nothing new. In the late 1880s, a Vermont
farmer by the name of Wilson Bentley
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2020/12/21/why-scientists-find-snowflakes-cool/>
began
shooting snowflakes at a microscopic level on his farm. Today he's
considered a pioneer for his work, which is part of the Smithsonian
Institution Archives
<https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/stories/wilson-bentley-pioneering-photographer-snowflakes>.
His photography is considered the inspiration for the common wisdom that
“no two snowflakes are alike.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-are-highest-resolution-photos-ever-taken-snowflakes-180976710/