Scientists create snowflake in the lab
It may look like any other snowflake that falls from the sky, but this tiny flake has been four hundred years in the making.
US researchers say that using a complex mathematical model they have finally been able to replicate the complex growth of snow crystals.
In nature, each snowflake begins with a bacterium or a pollutant around which water molecules come together and freeze with roughly a quintillion (one million million million) molecules making up every flake.
For 400 years scientists have tried to predict the shape of snowflakes based on temperature, humidity and other local conditions, but this is the first successful model.
Applications for the development are not yet known ... but the boffins say their dreams of a scientific snowball fight are one step closer.
Maths wizz David Griffeath of the University of Wiscinsin-Madison said: "Even though we've artfully stripped down the model over several years so that it's as simple and efficient as possible, it still takes us a day to grow one of these things."
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