N A T U R E ' S    D E S I G N

Text: Divya Agrawal

Here delicate snow-stars, out of the cloud,

come floating down in airy play,

Like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd

That whiten by night the Milky Way.

- William Cullen Bryant

Images: Alexey Kljatov

Winter is here. 

As I reminisce about white landscapes & Christmas lights, I can't help but marvel at the beauty of nature - and the 'design' so inherent to everything natural. Snowflakes - nature's magic - tiny, wisp like, falling from the skies that one would like to keep in a treasure chest forever...

We see snowflake illustrations everywhere - in Christmas decorations, embroidery projects & children's books. It is usually represented as a 6-pointed frilly spangle and that's what most of us think a snowflake is. Well, look at the pictures here and think again :)

These are a few of the thousands of photomicrographs taken by W.A. Bentley of Vermont, U.S.A. in the early 1900's. Bentley spent almost half a century photographing & documenting snow crystals.

Does nature ever cease to amaze? Such beauty, precision & goemetry in the tiniest of its elements!

All images from the book Snow Crystals by W.A. Bentley & W.J. Humphreys 

I for sure will examine a snowflake more closely, the next time I manage to catch one. 

How about you?