Honestly I 100% agree with his approach of "I'm studying this because it's cool and we don't know how it works". Really that's the foundation of science.
This is actually really ethically important and oft overlooked. A majority of research is performed in a matrix of biases related to future funding, grant writing, extensions, and pay. It's neat when people can research a topic without being motivated to seek conclusions that benefit something, or someone, even if it's 'the greater good', medicine etc. All serious scientists know about these biases and work hard to avoid them and produce good ethical science. But it's neat when people like him can just focus on something cool.
Tbh that is kinda where a lot of innovation came from. I always like joking about how scientists came up with the theory of the particle/wave duality of matter. They were like "light works, so how about we chuck random subatomic particles at it and see what happens?"
Thats cap, you wouldn't actually listen to somebody talking about something boring, snow and snowflakes are intriguing topics to you. If I started talking about paper you would fall sleep or click off the video in 2 minutes. Even if it was said passion.
Very interesting. As a brazilian, I grew up thinking the shapes of snowflakes were just a cartoon representation, until I traveled to Canada and was amazed by the real snowflakes. I loved watching them melting on my coat
I'm Canadian, and love watching the snow melt, because it means that winter is finally ending and I don't have to see the snow for another 7 to 8 months.
@@dominicbonogofski I'm Canadian too (from Saskatchewan), and I hate it when winter ends. Winter is my favourite season. It's so beautiful. There is nothing like the quiet hush, and cozy evenings, that come in deep winter. This winter has been so disappointing! It didn't snow until JANUARY. And if you're from around here you know that is crazy. It normally is snowing by around Halloween, sometimes earlier. I'm sure I've seen it snow it September. And, even now, there's not a lot of snow. At least, not by Saskatchewan standards. I hate summer. It's hot and sticky and gross. There's bugs everywhere, and tornados, and the heat is horrible. Why do people think plus 35 is a nice temp? Ugh. It's gross. You're all hot and sweaty, and sticky with sunscreen and bug spray. I mean, I know - to each their own. I just honestly don't get why anyone would like summer. I honestly believe people here have been brainwashed/conditioned to think summer is good, and winter is bad. They've been told that since they were like five years old, and now they just go along with it, without pausing to think about it. That's what I think, anyway. Bugs. Tornadoes. Power always going out because of thunderstorms. Being boiling hot. Not being able to sleep in the unbearable heat. Being sweaty. Being all sticky with sunscreen. Mosquito bites. Bugs all over the place. The drunks roaming the streets (too cold for them in winter to do so), the endless noise, all the contructions noises, motorcycles without mufflers breaking your eardrums, nothing peaceful or beautiful or quiet about it....until winter finally comes.
That is so interesting to hear! I'm Canadian. But I can really see, how, if you didn't grow up with snow, those could seem like a cartoon-like representation. I liked reading your post, because it gave me a perspective I couldn't have myself, having grown up here in Canada. I would have never though of seeing it as a cartoon-like thing.
@@Julia-nl3gq I'm also from Saskatchewan, and I don't particularly care for any season, as they all have downsides to them. The one I hate the least is spring. And there's no such thing as "standard weather conditions" in Saskatchewan. We literally had one year where it snowed in September, melted by October, and didn't snow again until January. The next year, there were like 2 blizzards in the span of two months where I live. I'm pretty sure it was also that same year where during the summer, it reached 46°C outside. Our climate is chaos.
He looks like a scientist who is not only psyched to have this as a job, but super-psyched that a very notable youtuber brought a camera crew to actually share it with the world. I mean, he starts out by talking about how his research is both valued by professionals, but also sold zero books after publication. It really do be like that in the wilderness of scientific research sometimes.
@@pirojfmifhghek566 You misunderstood. He published two successful books, then kept publishing more until eventually there was one that sold zero copies.
@@motifity3416 The ideal would be to be happy with what you have AND endlessly search for anything that will make you happier (not just materialistic obvs). If one was to be happy with what they have and have no desire to endlessly acquire anything else that would sustain or improve that - they would starve to death.
He's a perfect example of "If you love your work you'll never work a day in your life." He just feels like he's playing all day and getting paid for it.
He’s so comfortable talking about his study and you can easily tell because of the way he sits, holds himself and emotes so enthusiastically. His excitement is palpable.
Not like I love snow because I don't but I cant imagine not ever seeing or touching it. It's gonna be pretty wild when you see it for the first time lol.
That's indeed a curious thought, never to have witnessed snow in direct contact. Living in the Netherlands and visiting Germany and Austria on a regular basis, I cannot imagine what it means not to know the sensation of touching snow, ice and all of its shapes and sizes. How to feel the snow collapse under the weight of my feet, the sound that it makes, the way in which I can gather some snow and make a ball from it, and how that ball can be thrown, so as to hit a surface and disintegrate again. The ice crystals at a badly insulated window, the view of a million snow flakes, gently falling from the sky in winter, the small Dutch canals on which we can go ice skating, it's all part and parcel of our seasonal experience, just as the warm summers are. Australia has some snowy areas in Victoria and NSW, but I guess that the majority of the Australians does not frequently visit these places.
one time i accidentally witnessed a perfectly symmetrical stellar dendrite, i was playing around with some snow a few years back, looked at my hand and boom, a perfect snowflake, and since that day i have fallen in love with the beauty of snowflakes and the way they form.
For me it was noticing a snowflake on my jacket and realizing I could see the actual shape of it, and that it was actually a hexagon! It made me realize “wow, they’re actually shaped like that!!”
@@justsomeguymustache I mean, with however many snowflakes come down during one snowy day, even a one-in-a-million chance probably happens a few times!
I did an art project on radial symmetry and teared up multiple times looking at images of snowflakes. The awe I experienced discovering the immensely beautiful designs that had been invisible to me for my whole life was overwhelming. I feel so lucky to have had that moment. The artist I looked at was Alexey Kljatov.
Love what he said at the end. To be able to understand things as complex as the formation of snowflakes, even if it isn't remotely "useful", is a testament to our humanity. People like him who are curious and can share his passion with the world, recognize that knowledge is not a means to an end, it's an end in itself.
Understanding the formation of snowflakes is not directly useful. But a better understanding of the formation of micro-crystals in general can be enormously useful for material science and chemistry. This has direct industrial application.
And who knows what it might be used for, one day. I can think of anything from better weather forecasts, to models how you get from snowflakes to glaciers (and in turn the climate), or even other substances that form hexagonal crystals (like carbon; so this may be relevant for understanding carbon nanotubes as well, which have huge potential for technical applications). When you start doing basic research, the possible applications are not at all obvious.
Well, we shouldnt forget about those who are doing the really necessary stuff (workers, engineers, doctors etc.), though. We need to keep in mind, that while this man makes things which might be useful for someone on a one out of ten days, he still needs to eat on the other nine days as well. The only reason why he is able to do what he is doing is the fact that someone else is creating enough value to provide for him. Its nice to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, but someone has to look down and worry about our place in the dirt as well.
that's smart :D also I'd like to know why are individual snoflakes only a few cenitmeters at max size I don't know of an explanation . . . and could be because this is so complex
This man spent his life making snowflakes and trying to understand them and the most amazing thing about this is his enthusiasm.can you imagine spending your whole life worrying about snowflakes and still being so enthusiastic about them?
Sadly I think there are many people who be that enthusiastic if had the opportunity to truly pursue what they wanted. 99% of the ppl who wanted to study snowflakes all ended up in do wage slave labor instead :/
@@mrplur You know NOTHING about this man, his taxes, bills or anything beyond his fascination with and study of snowflakes. The world is chock full of interesting and meaningful ways to spend a life, in this country it’s a choice each person must make and live the consequences of that choice. If you are disgruntled by the lack of having found your own ‘snowflake’, it’s likely you have only yourself to blame.
You just can't see why "This man spent his life making snowflakes" cannot be true, can you? Similarly like the asker of the asinine question"are all snowflakes unique", you cannot see why "are all snowflakes unique" is an asinine question Hint:Were you to ask"this man" if it is true that he had"spent his life making snow flakes" , like the old man who was asked if he had lived in the same house all his life, he would reply *not yet*. For some reason the meaning of the word" unique" did not make it across the pond to kinderland - America. where you will hear the kinderlander speak of X as being almost or very or nearly, (or even *Very*) unique Some can understand " If it's *all * right, why then nothing is is right", and some cannot, whether or not they can is a useful shibboleth; to some that is obvious and to others less so, which latter might well ask asinine questions such as " are *all* snowflakes unique?"
This is how scientists were made at Caltech 40 years ago. Now Caltech is mostly full of poorly educated, DEI students. What a shame as our meritocracy is destroyed.
The key is to find what we can do in our own lives to bring us the same type and intensity of joy. Easier said than done for most of us, but we can start looking at what we want to do in the world that makes us enthusiastic.
@@Xapheus U see, this in itself changes over time. what is interesting at age 10 is no longer interesting at age 16 and age 26 makes anything but pleasure a pointless task.
@@sonpopco-op9682 At the end he did his prediction for form variation of the snow crystals and it fall perfect with his data later on so he was doing both.
“We have to know how that works damn it!” That may be the best definition of science I’ve ever heard. Absolutely love you and Dr. Libbrecht! Thanks for introducing him to us :)
That is true. It also may be a definition of why we might destroy ourselves! Double edged sword. Sounds about right though. haha. I am that way myself.
Few years ago I visited Hokkaido University and came to know they are the pioneer who discovered snow flakes patterns. We were so grateful to meet a local lady professor at the entrance and have her offer to guide us walked through the campus. During that time she posed me a question do I know how many shapes of snowflakes, my guessing was about five types. Now I know the better answer from this video. Thank you for this sharing!
What a legend this guy is. I can really appreciate scientists like this, who are just so interested in a thing that can sound so useless to us. I believe that we as humans can benefit from doing research on every small thing there is. It will help us to understand more about the strange world we live in.
An amateur scientist who first discovered spectral lines in France just prior to the revolution, brought his finds to a premier aristocratic scientist who dismissed his presentation as substandard and not worthy of his attentions. He was at the time a well known official tax collector. the man he dismissed took his revenge by denouncing him during the reign of terror.
Yes. Studying more about prism facets can be really useful when designing macro smooth surfaces and how matter adheres to it... and how to design geometry where matter can stick too.
Mad respect to this man. He has complete joy to dedicate his life to a specific area of science, to such an extent that he can probably confidently say that he is the worlds expert on the subject.
Learns more and more about less and less until, in the limit, he knows everything about nothing. Managers, on the other hand learn a little about more and more until, again in the limit, they know nothing about everything.
I watched this 4 times yesterday, showing it to family. My son has a paper to write on any topic for school and decided to write about snowflakes now. We went to the library yesterday and picked up a copy of Ken's beautiful books "Secret Life of a Snowflake" and W.A. Bentley's "Snow Crystals." Thank you so much for exploring and sharing this with us!
It's amazing, the incredible amount of diverse information, your son has, at his fingertips, compared to when I was a boy. Books, and the internet. As one who enjoys learning about the world around me, I am grateful to live in a time, to see such changes. You sound like a good dad. Best wishes, for your families health/happiness. And hope your son gets a good grade 😀
@Aaaa Yes, and no. School is a general term that can mean college, but can also mean other types of education as well. College refers specifically to a university (or community college) education.
I was shocked but the ending. Never have I asked myself during this whole amazing snowflake documentary why is this scientist researching this topic. It feels so naturally compelling to me to be deeply attracted to solving the mysteries of life and the universe. Questions lie in every topic and their answers are interconnected, understanding one topic will better your understanding of the whole. It would be sad if human beings only directly seek to increase their comfort and safety... Which we do a lot already.
We've reached a point in animal evolution where we have the luxury to ask "who and why we are". Seeking to increase comfort and safety is an animal instinct. When we are finally comfortable enough, the energy we use our brains with can shift else where
Currently a very great deal of us live in misery and insecurity due to the pursuit of unfulfulliable greed by a few. I do not see the pursuit of comfort and security for the many as a vice at current time.
There's also selection bias here though- you are the kind of person who clicks on a video about how snowflakes form. Which means that among the hundreds of thousands of potential videos, you were served this video by an algorithm that guessed you might like it. And then, even more unlikely, you actually clicked on it. I think most people who would watch a video like this wouldn't be the same group of people who would feel the need to ask why you'd study such a thing. It's like asking diners in an Italian restaurant which of them likes tomatoes. You're probably going to get a higher-than-average number of people who like tomatoes in that selection group than if you asked more broadly to the general populace, or in an unfriendly selection group- like a kindergarten classroom. The people who ask him that are likely more the latter two kinds of groups, the people who have neutral or negative interest themselves.
This dude has my kind of curiosity, he didn’t like the fact that no one knew how snowflakes worked and it really bothered him cause he wanted to know too so he just figured it out himself. I love that, the determination just out of curiosity always fascinates me.
yea but who gave him money to do it ... u need support . you cant feed your children with curiosity or snowflakes .. he was lucky that he had the support of university .. i wish the world we live change in a way so everyone with that level of enthusiasm would go and discover new things .. without worrying about how they gonna survive day to day life .
That intrinsic curiosity is fundamental to the whole enterprise of science and also of technology. Even if we don't find a practical application for a discovery, there's intrinsic value in understanding the world around us. Curiosity really is a core human value that defines our species and has made us what we are today. And if you need more motivation to do basic science (basic science is science that looks at how the world works on the most fundamental level, rather than tries to solve a specific problem or application), sometimes we have no clue as to what we're looking at or what the applications could be, such as when we discovered quantum mechanics and developed quantum field theory. It seemed so far removed from our everyday lives, like how could this be practically relevant? But only after we did the basic science did we have the first sweet clue as to what was possible using quantum mechanical principles, and currently we've already found many applications of quantum principles that we never would have if someone hadn't first asked "Why?" purely for it's own sake.
Did it not strike you that there is some thing odd strange queer or peculiar, not to say *asinine*, about asking the question:"Are*All* snowflakes unique"?
His final comments are so accurate. Science is about answering questions regardless of how important. Snowflakes are a question everybody has but few people answer. Most of us just assume "its interesting, but its not important enough for me to put the time in" and forget about it. Ken's curiosity sought him to put an immense amount of time into answering that question. That is the physicist at its most pure fundamental level. As a (far lesser) physicist myself, this really explains why we love physics. Its the joy of learning in its most pure form and the absolute need to have an answer to our curiosities in such a strong way that we will spend hundreds (thousands) of hours until we get there.
As a mathematician I agree a lot. It's so awesome how some math deemed to be completely useless and merely a "mental exercise" is being applied on different disciplines nowadays. His snowflakes research might have some awesome everyday application someday.
@@RickFleischman I see your point sir but do not underestimate the intelligence of the intelligent or how many are out there. A huge amount of people care about discovering new things no matter how obscure they might seem. An easy proof: This video is trending at number 5 on youtube:P
@@sirris4330 That's why we're here: To find out things that aren't - that - useful (who knows tho!) but still worthy enough to be interesting, because why not find out why/how something works 👍 In a way, everything is kinda meaningless if you start looking at the "big picture". We all die eventually and according to some theories, in a way so does the universe and nothing of us will be left behind, so why bother. But we do and that's an awesome thing.
@@finnishfatman Hell ya man I like your mindset and I agree. Just have one thing to say about the "theories" you mention. That's just nonsense science my guy. Yes we all die but absolutely all of us is materially left behind. Our molecules slowly decay, whether cremated, buried, donated to science etc... we will all eventually become part of the earth and therefore the universe to be randomly divided into new life. It takes a long amount of time but all organic matter is recycled into the universe. The "why bother" part is much more complex of course. It has yet to be proven that the universe will die. It's possible that the spatial expansion(the expansion of space itself) will decelerate at some point in the future of the universe. There is no real understanding of things on that scope in science as we understand it. If you mean nothing left of us as a conscience entity, that's already a foregone conclusion. Perhaps the cycles of chance will allow you to be renewed in a multiverse scenario trillions of years in the future?:) My philosophy however tends to agree with you. It may not be healthy emotionally but I have always thought about how tiny we are as human beings. A meaningless drop in a universe so massive and complex that we as sole human lives can barely make a difference on our tiny planet in our arbitrary galaxy. However, the "big picture" for me is so freeing that it brings me joy. That's exactly why we can do what we feel passionate about. We can chase whatever feelings and dreams we have. There is no responsibility to an overbearing truth; only responsibility to our limitations imposed by a ignorant human brain. The universe is beyond comprehension truly. Along with insane economic privileges', that curiosity is why we are able to explore the limit of the human brain in our limited place in this unimaginable world.
I love the way he approaches that concept of "why study that?" The curiosity is what drives him. He wants to know how they work. There doesn't need to be any more reason than that.
Exactly, there are many fields where research has been done on topics noone yet knew how to use, but proved very useful later on. One example is number theory, which is now ver, important for cryptography
@@EvilTaco It's also good for people to seek knowledge that never turns out to have any "use" nor make anybody money. Knowledge is its own end, not just some means to an end.
Understanding the formation of snowflakes - their shape and size - has a lot of practical applications. For example, different types of snowflakes have different coefficients of frictions when they are part of a snowpack layer on a mountain side. Such knowledge helps in understanding the conditions under which avalanches occur, therefore help in modelling and forecasting avalanches.
If you or everyone want to have Ken's knowledge about this filed then you need to be teaching Foundational principle of electric instead the base 101 of electric. All electron moved or behave just like what ? If the earth is proton then the moon is electron, If (the earth + the moon ) is the Push gravity then the sun is Pull gravity. An Atom's constructional space is just a fraction super nano version of Solar system that' s all.
@@baogiangsongque5507 @Lac Di you really don't know what you are talking about. What you are describing is the very naive teaching in high school to give a first intuition. In higher study you will learn that quantum physics is completely different from solar system and it's gravity. Electron don't orbite the nucleus like earth around the sun. It has a probability distribution around the nucleus that can have many different shape, some spheric, some very strange. The electron is not really localised in one place, it is diluted in its atomic orbital. Search orbital atomic to learn more.
@@inconnuunknown8770 Your mind set really has big problem. There are 2 main principle: human's law and nature's law and combine both Which one is powerful best then that's as is. Rain from up to down by the nature's law but you can make human's rain from down revert up by a sprinkler pressure. You tell me that the human's law better than the nature's law. I hear this voice everywhere when the uneducational right kids want something from their mother >>>??? P/s: the problem nowaday that the education teched the kids what are right but not what are wrong >? Self learning every moment thinking is how compare between right Vs wrong and how it is forming ???
@@baogiangsongque5507 I find it really difficult to read your comment and interpret it as something wrong with current education. The way science has progressed is by asking whether something should do one, or another thing. Figuring out which it is by carefully testing it. Now you know the answer and can use it. Nature is only exploring some of the careful tests, humans build more because we look for answers nature alone isn't giving. There is no conflict in that, no wrongness. Just science and the fruitful search for answers
"As a scientist, you want to figure something out." Contributing to the collective knowledge accumulated over millenia just because it's not already known. Badass.
They didn't go down this rabbit hole, but like Steve Mould has explained before, sometimes searching for answers leads to discoveries that are useful, whether the initial question was "important" or not.
@@kruks exactly! We won't fully understand how useful something like this is off the bat. It could be one of those things that in 100 years someone looks back and it solves some super complex problem.
I work in meteorology with part of my job being to photograph and determine which types of snowflakes are falling at a given time. Basically I travel around Canada chasing horrible winter weather to take measurements and identify snowflakes. Love the video! You just made my week.
Does a wetter heavier snow, versus a lighter fluffy feeling snow have a makeup that favours one type of snowflake over the other? In terms of flat plate like ones and rod/bullet shaped ones? ... you know, discounting slush and old treaded-upon snow that always gets wet and heavy feeling.
@@smillman437 I don't know if I can perfectly answer your question, but I'll give it a long-winded shot. Snowflakes form way up in the sky where the temperature and humidity is far different from ground temperature and humidity. For this reason there is no real strong correlation between ground temperature and snowflake type. That being said, you do notice trends especially at a given location with similar weather fronts. I am up in BC right now and am finding because of the mountains and landscape the sky can be much cooler than in the valley below causing snow to fall at much warmer ground temperatures than in a more flat area. For this reason you can get plates or needles at above zero temperatures and have it be wet and "packy" snow. We classify snowflakes into one of 10 categories that we put on a scale from F1 to F10. F1 F2 being a plate, F3 F4 being needles and columns, F5 - F7 being what we call irregular crystals (like a broken clump of crystals, not flat like a plate or long and skinny like a column or needle), and F8 - F10 being different forms of snow pellets, hail, and ice pellets. When snowflakes are shifting to a different type, you generally see it change to something that is next to it on the scale. For example I rarely observe snow go from an F1 to F10, but often obverse an F1 to F3 to F7 to F8 to rain transition. Intensity and snowflake type are not correlated. You can get every type of snowflake at every intensity. What is correlated though is visibility and snowflake type at a given intensity. Plates, with their flat and large surface area, make visibility way worse than if you had a needle or column falling down with the same rate of intensity. This is why using visibility as a metric for snow intensity is not accurate and far from ideal.
I had one of this guy's snowflake books as a kid. It really fascinated me. Whenever it snows and the snowflakes land on my sleeve I always find myself trying to look at them up close.
If I wanted to think about tomorrow, I would really want to think about yesterday again. This spicy writing is supposed to represent an exclamation, a kind of scream from an inwardly oppressed soul. I am almost blackish on the inside when I think of the current circumstances of our society. But not from an egoistic perspective, no, rather from an altruistic, self-sacrificing perspective that foresees a bad future for this world. For a world in which nothing dominates anymore. In a world that is an anarchy of feelings. But even here it doesn't matter how I feel about the world. I know you disagree. That’s yours. But only according to the rules of this world. Because in the end, when the beginning and middle and end of the times are over, only what you did counts. You can do whatever you feel like doing. We live in a society of pleasure, in which every individual pursues his goal erratically: the satisfaction of his needs. Be it sexually, financially, or otherwise. It no longer matters what needs you meet. The only thing that matters here is the fact that every person who kills their time here is a lost person. I know you're only here because you're acting out of fear. Fear of rejection, fear of failure? I hope for you that you know that if you waste your time here, your fear will not decrease. Because every day is worse than the previous one!
A constant smile on my face watching this. His joy working on this deceptively complex puzzle that has been hiding under our noses is infectious. His pursuit of knowledge is admirable.
@@legobrickabrac I do. I use excitement to write music and lyrics and to conceive of and mentally work on ideas for machines that I later set about building. I don't know why, but excitement is powerful fuel.
@@legobrickabrac lol plants don't use the same system to grow.... there's a slight difference what with the DNA snowflakes all turn out differently, plants somehow manage to grow to nearly the same shape.... it's not even a good analogy
Bubbles are extremely important. I would assume he is studying cavitation. Bubble dynamics are incredibly important for so many areas that the general public aren't aware of. Every leading academic institution has a bubble dynamicist - usually a mathematician (fluid mechanics).
It's wild coming across this video, since my father did his PhD thesis on the physics of ice crystal growth in 1978. We grew up hearing so much about snowflakes (in a place with no snow XD) and seeing the detailed photographs he took with the equipment that was available then. He probably would have loved this.
This guy is absolutely awesome, science needs more people like him. The excitement and joy he shows while talking about snowflakes is freaking contageous 😃
32 years ago, in my second grade elementary class we were learning about snowflakes or basically getting ready to just make one out of construction paper. I asked a question that has forever bothered me since that day "how do snowflakes get their shapes?" I was told "its because it turns to ice" and when I said "that doesn't answer how the shape is made", then I was told "we just don't know how snowflakes get their shape". Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht FINALLY answers this not just for himself but for anyone who asked the question "how do snowflakes get their shape" and was just told to accept a non answer. Now I can someday explain this to my kids. THANK YOU!
Maybe we can get a Doctor to answer the question I had for my DARE officer in grade school. If heroin is from poppy plants, why did I eat a hamburger last night covered in poppy seeds? Some questions NEED answering. Others complicate the enjoyment of the beauty of nature.
@@truthsRsung ignorance is bliss I assume for some people. Someday this finding could be the missing piece to understanding fusion reactions or quantum computing, but maybe it's best we just sit back and enjoy nature instead.
@@alkemix .....I still haven't gotten an answer on the poppy seed buns. I find that more relavent to my life than any benefit decoding the power of the sun has brought humanity. How many nuclear reactors have we produced as opposed to nuclear bombs after Einstein? Do we tend to use our education to help, or hurt our fellow man? Don't be so flippity floppity when you reply.
Understanding EXACTLY how crystals grow is a VERY-VERY useful knowledge in real life. The quality of our electronics today is totally dependent on the purity of the semiconductor crystals, and that is just ONE example from the many thousands.
My science quote of the year: "When you make a model and you sorta find it's supposed to do somethin' and it sorta does, it's just like... ...This might be RIGHT!"
This is why I love scientists. This man is staring at a near perfectly matching graph that you'd be lucky to get once in your life and... It *might* be right is the strongest he's willing to go.
Sorta right - he concludes there are NO 2 snowflakes alike - he calls it near impossible. BUT the remaining mystery in my eyes is WHY are there SIX poles to the the water 💧 molecules and hence the snowflakes ❄️?
@@Techprone1 From a structural pov, could it be because of the shape of the water molecule itself and the position of the separate charges on the molecule...?
As a Scandinavian I bow before the master of Snow. Naahh, but really - Truly fascinating research and what an incredibly wonderful man! I could listen for hours upon hours on him talking about snowflakes. Thank you Derek for always bringing the most interesting people onto your channel!
I love his reasoning for studying snowflakes! Maybe we won’t really ever learn anything of any value from snowflakes but the curiosity is why we are where we are today and leads too undiscovered break troughs. We need way more people like him.
Autistic & Asperger Syndrome people usually have "special interests" and somewhat obsessions over very specific stuff, so we already have people like him, we only need to encourage and support them to get where they want to be
Veritasium has some of the best put together content on RUclips. It's so high quality. The fact that it's about such fascinating scientific topics is just a huge benefit to us all.
Also, very easy to animate / simulate. Just start with a grid pattern like you see at the end, then from left to right unfreeze them and let them move freely and play it back reversed :)
This guy is so genuinely buzzed about ice crystals. He forgot the haters and now Disney pay him generously to inform them exactly how Elsas magic should look at a scale impossible to discern at even 4K resolution.
I love his comment on the saying "no two snowflakes are alike" because yea he's right most things with really any degree of complexity in nature are going to be differing in some way
Although its from a different field, i'd love to introduce you to crystalline glazes in ceramics!! Zinc Silicate(willemite) crystals can be grown in the glaze matrix by controlling temperature and duration during the firing process. I think this fusion between art and science is just simply beautiful to witness.
Do you think it would be possible to grow super efficient solar cells using CRISPR to modify a fungus from Fraser Island, Australia and glass sea sponge DNA?
@@abyssstrider2547 I was wondering the same thing. Like what parameters could you use to drive the crystalline structure? Temperature and pressure? This would be fascinating.
Yes. Please repress any feelings that might have awoken. Please refrain from going outside to explore and or discover anything. Please do not learn or share knowledge at any time. Just take it as it always has been and always will be. Thank you Fox News
16:24 "When you make a model, and you sort of find it's supposed to do something, and it sort of does, it's just like, 'This might be right!'" This is the reward for dedication and passion in science. That feeling you get when you finally crack the nut and nature reveals just a little bit of herself is so gratifying.
I was a little afraid of confirmation bias when I heard him say that. But I am counting on the reviewers and sc. community to try to properly disprove the idea - if possible ;)
@@lorenzakastylecrew he did everything correctly according to the scientific method. Make a hypothesis, and then do an experiment to test it. After that it's the work of him and everyone else to try and disprove it like you said.
From the perspective of a grad student of Complex Systems, this video is incredibly educational, it hits all the right spots, from the purpose and extents of modelling, to the cross-validation with experiments, to the sheer joy of discovering that you might have got it right :) And ultimately, the drive of science - of studying anything, really - is human curiosity and even intellectual pride after all, and it's marvellous and fun as it is. Keep up the amazing work!
30-40 minutes to make each snowflake BLEW MY MIND! 🤯 Hands down my favorite piece of your content ever! As other's have mentioned, this one really was a “drop what you're doing and pay close and undivided attention--this is *VERY* Important!” So much so, I actually had to restart the video, since I'd only marginally tuned in for the first few minutes. Sure, it may never lead to atom splitting and probably even less likely to lead to atom combining, but this right here, The Snowflake Guy, this is the gas that drives the whole vehicle of humanity's progression. Curiosity for curiosity’s sake. Imagine where the world would be if A. Everyone were so uncompromisingly passionate about their work. And B. Allowed themselves to turn that passion into an unapologetic search for meaning. We'd have conquered the cosmos centuries ago!
It is so wholesome to see Dr Libbrecht light up talking about his favourite topic! Thank you, Derek, for giving those people a chance to share their findings to milions of people! We really enjoy it!
My favorite line, and one I've used in the past: "No two snowflakes are alike, because no two follow the same path." Years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about why we're all different and I replied, "It isn't just genetics. Just like snowflakes, we all follow our own path -- and that helps make us who we are."
This is really true especially when considering identical twins separated at a young age. They often end up looking very different due to environmental factors causing different outcomes from dna expression (i dont recall the actual terms or mechanisms but it’s basically like that.)
I’m an adult engineer and I’ve seen all your videos. I think this video best captures the great feeling one gets exploring the scientific method. I don’t know if you set out to make an inspirational video about what drives a scientist or asked questions or edited with that goal, but you’ve clearly achieved that result. To youngsters of a certain age I could see this video (much more than others like it) being particularly inspirational to choose a college or major or career path in science. If I was to choose one video to show a budding scientist, it would be this one. Great work as always.
Unrelated, but when you say adult engineer, does that imply the existence of child engineers? Or that you work in the adult industry? (Not serious, just joking)
Bought a book by this guy after he was a guest lecturer visiting my meteorology department during undergrad around ten years ago. Love seeing what he's done since, his enthusiasm for the science hasn't waned!
I wondered not why he is so interested in snow flakes, I wondered how he got the money to do research on snow flakes. If he was doing only theoretical work, that's alright but he has some serious lab equipment there. I bet there are some practical implications of this research because creating such surfaces with a lot of surface area per volume is quite useful in a lot of research fields.
It is so satisfying to see someone so passionate about physics, so capable in his field, yet so humble and so sensitive to the beauty of the science she/he does. This is a great video.
That's actually most physicists, once you meet them. Most scientists, even. I'd say that the kind of person who wants to understand the world around them is almost never the same kind of person who's self-centered, out for personal gain, or otherwise terrible.
@@delphicdescant As a physicist myself, I'd say that is the ideal case. Scientists SHOULD be like that, yet unfortunately through my still short career I've faced a reality where some of them are simply making ends meet with what they thought would be their passion. Thankfully this is not the general case, but rather an exception. What I find extraordinary about this man are the facts that he is so knowledgeable, so humble and that he has an impressive ability to communicate the physics while still making his passion so explicit to anyone who listens to him: I think that's wonderful.
I spent a winter in the Arctic and the snow was so different from what I had experienced all my life. With average temps around -40 and seeing this research I finally get why. Thanks
I'm thankful that there are people who have such strong passions that they take time to learn as much as they can with no promise for money, fame, or even real use. So thank you Dr. Ken, Veritasium, and everyone who enjoys asking questions and finding answers!
What's even more incredible is when we find a usefulness for data such as this. I'm still waiting on a Frozen ray gun and who knows maybe Dr. Ken will make it in 20 years.
I love this approach of "We don't know anything it and someone needs to figure it out....you know what I'll go and figure this out" I wish more people were like him.
The stuff he discovered may prove to be useful in space travel or something like that. It basically just expands the fundamentals of water and ice physics. And since all our life is based around water, I think this is important to know.
Exactly, understanding the physics of crystal formation can have huge benefits in all sorts of other fields, like car batteries or electronics manufacturing.
@@falconerd343 *All manufacturing. Imagine if we could grow a perfect metallic crystal to practical specifications, it would revolutionize aerospace manufacturing for starters, but the knock on effects would be tremendous
Yeah I was thinking it could be used to learn about other planets climates by knowing what conditions it when through, though I suppose you would need more research with different atmospheres and such.
Exactly! Other user commented saying, "aww look at his face while studying snowflakes" and it got thousands of like. what a dumbass. Just because he is studying "Snowflakes" does not mean he is studying smth childish or cute. His study is gonna help us enormously understanding water molecules, interaction of water molecules with different gases in atmosphere etc, etc. God damn people are so dumb
This video had me in complete tears, as a physics student, seeing someone so passionate and dedicated to something so apparently unimportant yet so beautiful it’s such an amazing thing, I’m literally crying
Toward the end of the video when it started discussing how well his hypothesis matched with his experimental results regarding Nakaya’s model, I got particularly teary eyed. His passion and the payoff of his work is so inspiring and uplifting!
No learning is ever unimportant- the closest it ever gets is knowledge might not be important /*yet*/ Studying water vapor trails improved rocket nozzle designs and made injet printers able to print shaper smaller images. There are a million other examples. I may not know what knowing more about snowflakes will get us, but I am absolutely sure it will be critical knowledge eventually, to someone somewhere.
@@ghostinthebox the moment you stop learning is the moment shared in time with when you stop living. Only experience will tell me if this stays true for my reality! Cheers!
Every now and then, Derek posts a video that makes me stop everything and hyperfocus on something that I never questioned but now feel like it's something I always wanted to know.
I once saw a perfect snowflake fall on the seat of my moms car when I opened the door back when we lived north of Iceland. It must have had a 2mm - 3mm radius or something, it was so visible. Been fascinated since. Keep up the good work! Curiosity is more than enough inspiration to pursue passions! Not everything has to have practical value, emotional value can be worth just as much, if not more.
Once our teacher told us Iceland is green and Greenland is ice 🤔 it is called so, in history, so that no one goes to conquer the land because it is all ice. İs it true?
this was deeply satisfying, having only ever seen images of perfect, symmetrical snowflakes. It felt difficult for me to believe that something that's the result of so much variation would always come out looking exactly perfect
My main takeaway from this, is that you just taught me - in mere seconds - a satisfying explanation to how (water) molecules bond. No teacher has ever fully made me UNDERSTAND how it is done. You are an extraordinary teacher, and had I had you in physics class, I would have probably pursued a physics education. That bond animation set every piece of the puzzle straight
@@abhinav.mp4 truth lol. It's just a basic, albeit well done, description of the polar nature of water molecules. Nothing magical about the description here.
@@abhinav.mp4 Well that's one assumption. I am quite an inquisitive person, and when I don't feel like I understand a subject, I will ask a million questions in a million different ways until I do. But yes, of course I do listen more intensely here and rewind if I missed something - but asking questions isn't really a possibility here either. I'd say my teachers still had the upper hand regarding opportunity to teach me.
Hearing that man talk about his life and seeing the way he felt about that achievement was so awesome! Deciding you wanted to be somebody that figured something out like that and actually doing it like that has to be one if the greatest feelings a person can have. It was really nice that you were able to capture the sensation of that feeling of fulfillment and share it with all of us like that. You are truly my favorite person on RUclips Veritasium!
This man has changed my view of science, yet again. Snowflake production wasn't even on on radar (look that up) but now I know a bit more how it works.
Absolutely. The real beauty of science is where there is no plan or scheme other than simply understanding our reality with more clarity. I fully believe passionate science just for the sake of it is one of the most noble professionals a person can have. It reminds me of being a child, but in a much more complex space. We are all just children of the universe just trying to figure out what's going on.
I wish my physics teacher was as enthusiastic about science as Dr. Ken is. His passion for his field of study makes me want to learn about snowflakes too.
I had the honor to have an enthusiastic physics teacher. Actually even twice. Definitely the best lectures I've ever had. Unfortunately that still didn't make me a physicist.
I also had a great physics teacher and he was one of, if not, my favorite teachers. I love that class so much and learned so much from him too. I had lots of questions and he took his time with me to see if we can answer almost all of them which felt so satisfying!
I like how the guy is so giddy about his work. He's so excited and keeps smiling lol. That's a real scientist right there lol. Never worked a day in his life because he just loves what he does.
He reminds me a lot of Professor Ed Copeland and Professor Mike Merrifield from the University of Nottingham that show up on Sixty Symbols a lot. Those guys display the same unending enthusiasm about their work that this guy does.
This man is able to construct snowflakes that never would have come to exist within nature on its own due to his ability to change the conditions so fast. *and he does*
This work has much broader practical applications than he talked about. The most common method of purifying compounds after synthesis or extraction is called 'recrystallization'. Finding a solvent mix and temperature range to do that can be tricky, particularly for organic molecules with complex shapes. If the crystals grow too needle-like or too plate-like they clog up the container and trap solvents and byproducts, so it's important to find an intermediate range of saturation and temperature so they can be purified.
Hexagons once again being bestagons. Love this guy. "What the world needs is more people who have come alive." You can't plan ahead where this kind of basic research will go. Organically self-assembling materials? And surely crystal growth (and controlling it) has many applications.
@@legobrickabrac an entire lifetime into studying this for some random youtuber to say "it's just blah blah." That's why the video is about the guy who actually understands this complex phenomenon and not you.
@@solidtank7957 I didn't say bla bla, I said the patterns are governed by electromagnetism or more specifically frequency vibration. Similar fractal patterns and effects happens to sand on metal plate when sound frequency is added to it. I vas created fractal patterns in graphic design software and was one of My favourite things to do about 15 years ago. I am also a music producer and do sound desighn which is understateding and manipulating sound wave frequency to get the sound I want. I am also an electrician. You dont know anything about Me.
@@legobrickabrac So you a bit of a know-it-all? If you are really that superbly versed in all the intricate science fields involved, then good for you. But I have to sadly admit that I have yet to meet a single person, who tells me what they know and do, and that it's simply this or that, or it's way easier than that, etc., who can actually back up their claims and excel at every one of their proclaimed masteries. In every case up until now, the person who one would generally call a "know-it-all" will fail at even explaining or praciticing the most single tasks in the fields he claims to be an expert on. You would be the first if I'm mistaken here. In that case ignore the rest and leave it up to the person my previous statement applies to. If it really is so easy and the life-achievement of the guy presenting his research in this video is without value and/or new insight as you try to make it sound (I did this or that 15 years ago, nothing new), then get yourself into the scientific discourse and be the next guy on such a video, or make ones yourself. Be the one to revolutionize the field. Because as it was said in the video, up until now there was no proven explanation. Of many million, billion people on earth. Collective information. If you're not capable of that, or don't want to do that out of convenience, or one of the many other ludicrous reasons I have heard, then you're unfortunately just one of many. One of many of those who claim but fail to provide. Of those fallen victim to the dunning-kruger-effect of doom. I don't want to insult you, neither do I want to discredit you. I'm just sick of people downplaying other peoples achievements for placing themselves in the stage lights. It's the same kind of ppl that are like "I could've thought of that too, it's not that hard/big of an achievement/special/...", but haven't thought of it and are now salty that they don't get the big money or fame, because if something get's explained nicely and gets presented all finished and polished, it often seems SO easy, but it actually isn't. Just an example of my thought process. The lates video of "Stuff Made Here". I'm sure many people could have thought about creating a charge powered nutcracker, especially after his baseball bat video, etc. Even my initial reaction was "Wow cool, so simple but so cool. Anyone could've made that". But after seeing the work, I as always realized, I wouldn't even have the skillset to machine, desing and especially >calculate< a fraction of the stuff that is and was necessary to make it safe and make it work. There is so much you can't think of, so much you don't get in this initial burst of recognition that it feels blasphemous going "Ah man it's just a (nail) gun shell powered baseball bat, powered by some pressure". Instead of that I find way more joy in marveling at the ingeniuity of my fellow human beings and admiring their work and really being happy for them to finally achieve something that they worked hard for, instead of dismissing it as easy, or not very interesting. Maybe try it out someday. Have a nice day my friend and enjoy life.
@@dustvoice I think his work is great as he is showing and capturing it and proving himself correct. Not sure why Me saying its governed by electromagnetism creates such upset. He dont care what We think so why are you fighting for him? I never heard of this guy or his work or if I did then I forgot. He dont care what you think or what I think. He does his work for him self.
I was sitting in a cold car some years ago waiting for my husband to come out of a store (he’s a SLOW shopper) when it started to snow lightly. The conditions were such that about one in five of the flakes hitting the windshield in front of me was a fully formed flake. They were so beautiful!! I could have watched for hours, cold forgotten. Of course I must have looked like I was on LSD to anyone passing by but who cares? Beautiful memory for me.
I picked a leaf off a tree once and held it up to a streetlight and looked at the veins for so long that I eventually realized all my friends were staring at me, and one of them said "What the hell are you looking at?!" Those are the moments you realize you just arent the same as everyone else lol
"We just kept making books until they sold 0 copies and then we stopped" Sound strategy I respect this man.
Ken for president!
Kinda made me sad, if I had more tha 10 euros in my debit card I would buy one
Wait, isn't that just known as "print on demand"?
@@giovannifalso6342 lol the man is rich why sad?
@@mal2ksc My impression is he meant he kept making new books with pictures of snowflakes, not just printing copies of the same book.
Honestly I 100% agree with his approach of "I'm studying this because it's cool and we don't know how it works". Really that's the foundation of science.
heh
it's cool
This is actually really ethically important and oft overlooked. A majority of research is performed in a matrix of biases related to future funding, grant writing, extensions, and pay. It's neat when people can research a topic without being motivated to seek conclusions that benefit something, or someone, even if it's 'the greater good', medicine etc. All serious scientists know about these biases and work hard to avoid them and produce good ethical science. But it's neat when people like him can just focus on something cool.
@@kiprs heh heheh
Tbh that is kinda where a lot of innovation came from. I always like joking about how scientists came up with the theory of the particle/wave duality of matter. They were like "light works, so how about we chuck random subatomic particles at it and see what happens?"
Gotta have the almighty $
Listening to people talking about their life’s passion is my favorite thing ever
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Is that your passion?
When I do that, nobody cares :(
@@somerandom7672 find new friends
Thats cap, you wouldn't actually listen to somebody talking about something boring, snow and snowflakes are intriguing topics to you.
If I started talking about paper you would fall sleep or click off the video in 2 minutes. Even if it was said passion.
Very interesting. As a brazilian, I grew up thinking the shapes of snowflakes were just a cartoon representation, until I traveled to Canada and was amazed by the real snowflakes. I loved watching them melting on my coat
Brasileiros estão por toda parte. Hehe.
I'm Canadian, and love watching the snow melt, because it means that winter is finally ending and I don't have to see the snow for another 7 to 8 months.
@@dominicbonogofski I'm Canadian too (from Saskatchewan), and I hate it when winter ends. Winter is my favourite season. It's so beautiful. There is nothing like the quiet hush, and cozy evenings, that come in deep winter.
This winter has been so disappointing! It didn't snow until JANUARY. And if you're from around here you know that is crazy. It normally is snowing by around Halloween, sometimes earlier. I'm sure I've seen it snow it September.
And, even now, there's not a lot of snow. At least, not by Saskatchewan standards.
I hate summer. It's hot and sticky and gross. There's bugs everywhere, and tornados, and the heat is horrible. Why do people think plus 35 is a nice temp? Ugh. It's gross. You're all hot and sweaty, and sticky with sunscreen and bug spray. I mean, I know - to each their own. I just honestly don't get why anyone would like summer.
I honestly believe people here have been brainwashed/conditioned to think summer is good, and winter is bad. They've been told that since they were like five years old, and now they just go along with it, without pausing to think about it. That's what I think, anyway.
Bugs. Tornadoes. Power always going out because of thunderstorms. Being boiling hot. Not being able to sleep in the unbearable heat. Being sweaty. Being all sticky with sunscreen. Mosquito bites. Bugs all over the place. The drunks roaming the streets (too cold for them in winter to do so), the endless noise, all the contructions noises, motorcycles without mufflers breaking your eardrums, nothing peaceful or beautiful or quiet about it....until winter finally comes.
That is so interesting to hear! I'm Canadian. But I can really see, how, if you didn't grow up with snow, those could seem like a cartoon-like representation.
I liked reading your post, because it gave me a perspective I couldn't have myself, having grown up here in Canada. I would have never though of seeing it as a cartoon-like thing.
@@Julia-nl3gq I'm also from Saskatchewan, and I don't particularly care for any season, as they all have downsides to them. The one I hate the least is spring. And there's no such thing as "standard weather conditions" in Saskatchewan. We literally had one year where it snowed in September, melted by October, and didn't snow again until January. The next year, there were like 2 blizzards in the span of two months where I live. I'm pretty sure it was also that same year where during the summer, it reached 46°C outside. Our climate is chaos.
My favorite thing is that Dr.Ken is smiling the whole time, what an achievement it is to be that excited about your work. For over 40 years at that!
this. finding something that brings you joy for this amount of time in your life. In my eyes this is what life is about.
Snowflakes are fun
Yeah - he looks like a really Good person - Reminds me of Dr Emoto. Both studying water crystallization...
He looks like a scientist who is not only psyched to have this as a job, but super-psyched that a very notable youtuber brought a camera crew to actually share it with the world. I mean, he starts out by talking about how his research is both valued by professionals, but also sold zero books after publication. It really do be like that in the wilderness of scientific research sometimes.
@@pirojfmifhghek566 You misunderstood. He published two successful books, then kept publishing more until eventually there was one that sold zero copies.
This man spent his career studying snowflakes and he is happy, that's the life I want to live
Make sure to not become the anteater guy ^^
@@sogari2187 😂
@Aaaa either be happy with what you have, or endlessly search for something that makes you happy
Except he left the place (North Dakota) where he experienced what he loved naturally, to California where they make everything perfectly fake.
@@motifity3416 The ideal would be to be happy with what you have AND endlessly search for anything that will make you happier (not just materialistic obvs).
If one was to be happy with what they have and have no desire to endlessly acquire anything else that would sustain or improve that - they would starve to death.
You can feel how much Ken likes learning about snowflakes from his face. He was enthusiastic from the start to the end of the video.
He's a perfect example of "If you love your work you'll never work a day in your life." He just feels like he's playing all day and getting paid for it.
I think he wonders though :p
He’s so comfortable talking about his study and you can easily tell because of the way he sits, holds himself and emotes so enthusiastically. His excitement is palpable.
The best part is that you could tell he wasn't forcing it, it was real.
you understand if you ever was on camera. Try not to smile is difficult. Smiling is common.
As an Australian, I can tell you I've never seen one of these things before and find their existence fascinating.
Not like I love snow because I don't but I cant imagine not ever seeing or touching it. It's gonna be pretty wild when you see it for the first time lol.
That's indeed a curious thought, never to have witnessed snow in direct contact. Living in the Netherlands and visiting Germany and Austria on a regular basis, I cannot imagine what it means not to know the sensation of touching snow, ice and all of its shapes and sizes. How to feel the snow collapse under the weight of my feet, the sound that it makes, the way in which I can gather some snow and make a ball from it, and how that ball can be thrown, so as to hit a surface and disintegrate again. The ice crystals at a badly insulated window, the view of a million snow flakes, gently falling from the sky in winter, the small Dutch canals on which we can go ice skating, it's all part and parcel of our seasonal experience, just as the warm summers are.
Australia has some snowy areas in Victoria and NSW, but I guess that the majority of the Australians does not frequently visit these places.
@@Guido_XL yikes
As a singaporean, I have also never seen or touched snowflakes before and really want to experience it at least once.
@@Kvltklassik Who
I love seeing someone speak as passionately as this dude talks about his snowflakes, great content
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@@MrUssy101 bru wtf?!
@@MrUssy101 just let him do what he likes to do man
@@MrUssy101 "who cares about snowflakes", says the guy clicking on a video abt snowflakes
@@MrUssy101 People care more about snowflakes than they care about you
The power this man wields is astonishing
Why does this obnoxious guy he knows everything and we are the dumb ones !!!!!
@@MrUssy101 Because he uses correct grammar.
@@MrUssy101 stop it, get some help
Frieza's full power is only 1% of this man's full power
Power?
This is the sort of content I need, just some guy who’s an expert on an extremely specific area of life
hi i’m ur biggest fan
Hi i'm ur smallest fan.
Hi I'm ur average fan
*_Hi I'm ur somewhat fan._*
Hi I'm just fan
one time i accidentally witnessed a perfectly symmetrical stellar dendrite, i was playing around with some snow a few years back, looked at my hand and boom, a perfect snowflake, and since that day i have fallen in love with the beauty of snowflakes and the way they form.
For me it was noticing a snowflake on my jacket and realizing I could see the actual shape of it, and that it was actually a hexagon! It made me realize “wow, they’re actually shaped like that!!”
@@Piper_____ yess i cant believe how they are "extremely rare" but people find them on accident, LOL.
@@justsomeguymustache I mean, with however many snowflakes come down during one snowy day, even a one-in-a-million chance probably happens a few times!
I did an art project on radial symmetry and teared up multiple times looking at images of snowflakes. The awe I experienced discovering the immensely beautiful designs that had been invisible to me for my whole life was overwhelming. I feel so lucky to have had that moment.
The artist I looked at was Alexey Kljatov.
"aCcIdEnTaLlY"
Love what he said at the end. To be able to understand things as complex as the formation of snowflakes, even if it isn't remotely "useful", is a testament to our humanity. People like him who are curious and can share his passion with the world, recognize that knowledge is not a means to an end, it's an end in itself.
Understanding the formation of snowflakes is not directly useful. But a better understanding of the formation of micro-crystals in general can be enormously useful for material science and chemistry. This has direct industrial application.
I agree, and I would add that even the most apparently "useless" knowledge often can lead to amazing insights down the line.
And who knows what it might be used for, one day. I can think of anything from better weather forecasts, to models how you get from snowflakes to glaciers (and in turn the climate), or even other substances that form hexagonal crystals (like carbon; so this may be relevant for understanding carbon nanotubes as well, which have huge potential for technical applications). When you start doing basic research, the possible applications are not at all obvious.
Well, we shouldnt forget about those who are doing the really necessary stuff (workers, engineers, doctors etc.), though. We need to keep in mind, that while this man makes things which might be useful for someone on a one out of ten days, he still needs to eat on the other nine days as well. The only reason why he is able to do what he is doing is the fact that someone else is creating enough value to provide for him. Its nice to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, but someone has to look down and worry about our place in the dirt as well.
It isn't that complex that's the point of the video, it's action and region to the list basic level.
A fraction of passion this guy has for snowflakes will make a massive difference in the world around us.
Bbfreagjmin quota people you mean
No
@@egggge4752 a
that's smart :D
also I'd like to know why are individual snoflakes only a few cenitmeters at max size
I don't know of an explanation . . . and could be because this is so complex
@@DrDeuteron that's one part of it
are there any updrafts ?? . . a strong updraft can hold quite large objects in the air
This man spent his life making snowflakes and trying to understand them and the most amazing thing about this is his enthusiasm.can you imagine spending your whole life worrying about snowflakes and still being so enthusiastic about them?
Sadly I think there are many people who be that enthusiastic if had the opportunity to truly pursue what they wanted. 99% of the ppl who wanted to study snowflakes all ended up in do wage slave labor instead :/
he didn't spend his whole life just on snowflakes.... snowflakes presented an oppertunity for him
@@mrplur You know NOTHING about this man, his taxes, bills or anything beyond his fascination with and study of snowflakes. The world is chock full of interesting and meaningful ways to spend a life, in this country it’s a choice each person must make and live the consequences of that choice. If you are disgruntled by the lack of having found your own ‘snowflake’, it’s likely you have only yourself to blame.
@@rainofkhandaq6678 My grandmother used to tell me, ‘If you’re looking for ‘fair’, it’s with the cotton candy and carousels.’
You just can't see why "This man spent his life making snowflakes" cannot be true, can you? Similarly like the asker of the asinine question"are all snowflakes unique", you cannot see why "are all snowflakes unique" is an asinine question
Hint:Were you to ask"this man" if it is true that he had"spent his life making snow flakes" , like the old man who was asked if he had lived in the same house all his life, he would reply *not yet*.
For some reason the meaning of the word" unique" did not make it across the pond to kinderland - America. where you will hear the kinderlander speak of X as being almost or very or nearly, (or even *Very*) unique
Some can understand " If it's *all * right, why then nothing is is right", and some cannot, whether or not they can is a useful shibboleth; to some that is obvious and to others less so, which latter might well ask asinine questions such as " are *all* snowflakes unique?"
We are lucky to have scientists like him, that give us the answers to how nature works.
It's the most valuable thing.
This is how scientists were made at Caltech 40 years ago. Now Caltech is mostly full of poorly educated, DEI students. What a shame as our meritocracy is destroyed.
just that genuine smile on this guy's face while talking about snow flakes shows how happy he is with what he's doing :) that's enthusiasm
and that somebody else wants to know something special like that, is making him happy
he just had too many crystals in college parties.. got himself onto the cause... LOL
It's probably more about making money than snow flakes.
The key is to find what we can do in our own lives to bring us the same type and intensity of joy.
Easier said than done for most of us, but we can start looking at what we want to do in the world that makes us enthusiastic.
@@Xapheus U see, this in itself changes over time. what is interesting at age 10 is no longer interesting at age 16 and age 26 makes anything but pleasure a pointless task.
impressive that this guy is apparently doing both the theoretical and experimental physics
among us is my favorite cereal
None of the work he presented was theoretical, it was all practical hands on. That is how science should be done.
@@sonpopco-op9682 At the end he did his prediction for form variation of the snow crystals and it fall perfect with his data later on so he was doing both.
Atomic molecular structure visible in the macro world
Yes. At first he gave the impression of only doing experiments, but that changed later in the video.
“We have to know how that works damn it!” That may be the best definition of science I’ve ever heard. Absolutely love you and Dr. Libbrecht! Thanks for introducing him to us :)
He is such nice and genuine guy.
I couldn't possibly say it better, Maryah!
That is true. It also may be a definition of why we might destroy ourselves! Double edged sword. Sounds about right though. haha. I am that way myself.
Few years ago I visited Hokkaido University and came to know they are the pioneer who discovered snow flakes patterns. We were so grateful to meet a local lady professor at the entrance and have her offer to guide us walked through the campus. During that time she posed me a question do I know how many shapes of snowflakes, my guessing was about five types. Now I know the better answer from this video. Thank you for this sharing!
What a legend this guy is. I can really appreciate scientists like this, who are just so interested in a thing that can sound so useless to us. I believe that we as humans can benefit from doing research on every small thing there is. It will help us to understand more about the strange world we live in.
An amateur scientist who first discovered spectral lines in France just prior to the revolution, brought his finds to a premier aristocratic scientist who dismissed his presentation as substandard and not worthy of his attentions. He was at the time a well known official tax collector. the man he dismissed took his revenge by denouncing him during the reign of terror.
Yes. Studying more about prism facets can be really useful when designing macro smooth surfaces and how matter adheres to it... and how to design geometry where matter can stick too.
this research could have massive implications for nano technology
You found *nothing* queer strange peculiar or anomalous about the question:"Are all* snowflakes unique"?
Mad respect to this man. He has complete joy to dedicate his life to a specific area of science, to such an extent that he can probably confidently say that he is the worlds expert on the subject.
Admirable for sure
Learns more and more about less and less until, in the limit, he knows everything about nothing. Managers, on the other hand learn a little about more and more until, again in the limit, they know nothing about everything.
@@borysnijinski331 ?
@@borysnijinski331 - Socrates
@@borysnijinski331 are you saying he sucks at science
That man is the embodiment of: *“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”*
He snowflake maxxed
If you ever did the stuff you love as a job - you'd VERY quickly find out how BS that quote is...
With the exception that he left North Dakota for California to do it.
U likey the irony?
you forgot to add "If you're lucky".
I love sleeping, but it 'aint gonna get me nowhere.
@@TheUltimateBlooper couldn’t agree more 😂
The world needs more people like this guy who absolutely loves something as simple and complex as snowflakes...
“Snowflake can be shaped like a bullet”
_Frozen 3 gonna take a pretty gangsta turn_
I would watch that one.
please let them do so. i am traumatized due to excessive exposure to those two movies due to my kids.
@@coskuarsiray well I mean, the kids who watched Frozen are probably over 18 now so the movie can adapt to the new demographics 😏
Americans: * invest *
Lol
"Does each snowflake in essence reveal its history through itsshape?"
"Yeah absolutely, to some degree"
That's a good pun, Dr.Ken!
@J J explain to me i dont get it
@@ccriztoff bruh 💀
@@ccriztoff Correct. Snowflakes don't work,. They bitch, complain, get offended & avoid work at all costs.
A code representing changes in environmental conditions the snow flake has encountered during formation.
The 'shape' of every human being does the same...
I watched this 4 times yesterday, showing it to family. My son has a paper to write on any topic for school and decided to write about snowflakes now. We went to the library yesterday and picked up a copy of Ken's beautiful books "Secret Life of a Snowflake" and W.A. Bentley's "Snow Crystals." Thank you so much for exploring and sharing this with us!
And just like that, you've found an excellent application!!
Yaaay! I love this
@Aaaa technically yes but usually people will specify college. Normally when you hear "school" being used this way it means somewhere before college
It's amazing, the incredible amount of diverse information, your son has, at his fingertips, compared to when I was a boy. Books, and the internet.
As one who enjoys learning about the world around me, I am grateful to live in a time, to see such changes.
You sound like a good dad. Best wishes, for your families health/happiness.
And hope your son gets a good grade 😀
@Aaaa Yes, and no. School is a general term that can mean college, but can also mean other types of education as well. College refers specifically to a university (or community college) education.
I was shocked but the ending. Never have I asked myself during this whole amazing snowflake documentary why is this scientist researching this topic. It feels so naturally compelling to me to be deeply attracted to solving the mysteries of life and the universe. Questions lie in every topic and their answers are interconnected, understanding one topic will better your understanding of the whole.
It would be sad if human beings only directly seek to increase their comfort and safety... Which we do a lot already.
We've reached a point in animal evolution where we have the luxury to ask "who and why we are". Seeking to increase comfort and safety is an animal instinct. When we are finally comfortable enough, the energy we use our brains with can shift else where
Currently a very great deal of us live in misery and insecurity due to the pursuit of unfulfulliable greed by a few. I do not see the pursuit of comfort and security for the many as a vice at current time.
I'm 14 and this is deep
@@Whatismusic123 Just wait until you're actually aware of how little _you do know,_ and how much you take for granted *that you don't.*
There's also selection bias here though- you are the kind of person who clicks on a video about how snowflakes form. Which means that among the hundreds of thousands of potential videos, you were served this video by an algorithm that guessed you might like it. And then, even more unlikely, you actually clicked on it. I think most people who would watch a video like this wouldn't be the same group of people who would feel the need to ask why you'd study such a thing.
It's like asking diners in an Italian restaurant which of them likes tomatoes. You're probably going to get a higher-than-average number of people who like tomatoes in that selection group than if you asked more broadly to the general populace, or in an unfriendly selection group- like a kindergarten classroom. The people who ask him that are likely more the latter two kinds of groups, the people who have neutral or negative interest themselves.
This dude has my kind of curiosity, he didn’t like the fact that no one knew how snowflakes worked and it really bothered him cause he wanted to know too so he just figured it out himself. I love that, the determination just out of curiosity always fascinates me.
@nieooj gotoy I love it, so thankful for people like this.
yea but who gave him money to do it ... u need support . you cant feed your children with curiosity or snowflakes .. he was lucky that he had the support of university .. i wish the world we live change in a way so everyone with that level of enthusiasm would go and discover new things .. without worrying about how they gonna survive day to day life .
@@wingman751 Communism in Cuba in regards to the public health sector
That intrinsic curiosity is fundamental to the whole enterprise of science and also of technology. Even if we don't find a practical application for a discovery, there's intrinsic value in understanding the world around us. Curiosity really is a core human value that defines our species and has made us what we are today.
And if you need more motivation to do basic science (basic science is science that looks at how the world works on the most fundamental level, rather than tries to solve a specific problem or application), sometimes we have no clue as to what we're looking at or what the applications could be, such as when we discovered quantum mechanics and developed quantum field theory. It seemed so far removed from our everyday lives, like how could this be practically relevant? But only after we did the basic science did we have the first sweet clue as to what was possible using quantum mechanical principles, and currently we've already found many applications of quantum principles that we never would have if someone hadn't first asked "Why?" purely for it's own sake.
Did it not strike you that there is some thing odd strange queer or peculiar, not to say *asinine*, about asking the question:"Are*All* snowflakes unique"?
His final comments are so accurate. Science is about answering questions regardless of how important. Snowflakes are a question everybody has but few people answer. Most of us just assume "its interesting, but its not important enough for me to put the time in" and forget about it. Ken's curiosity sought him to put an immense amount of time into answering that question. That is the physicist at its most pure fundamental level. As a (far lesser) physicist myself, this really explains why we love physics. Its the joy of learning in its most pure form and the absolute need to have an answer to our curiosities in such a strong way that we will spend hundreds (thousands) of hours until we get there.
As a mathematician I agree a lot. It's so awesome how some math deemed to be completely useless and merely a "mental exercise" is being applied on different disciplines nowadays.
His snowflakes research might have some awesome everyday application someday.
I would love to make a video about obscure science stuff, but people care so much more about the shoes they wear or blouses they buy
@@RickFleischman I see your point sir but do not underestimate the intelligence of the intelligent or how many are out there. A huge amount of people care about discovering new things no matter how obscure they might seem. An easy proof: This video is trending at number 5 on youtube:P
@@sirris4330 That's why we're here: To find out things that aren't - that - useful (who knows tho!) but still worthy enough to be interesting, because why not find out why/how something works 👍 In a way, everything is kinda meaningless if you start looking at the "big picture". We all die eventually and according to some theories, in a way so does the universe and nothing of us will be left behind, so why bother. But we do and that's an awesome thing.
@@finnishfatman Hell ya man I like your mindset and I agree. Just have one thing to say about the "theories" you mention. That's just nonsense science my guy. Yes we all die but absolutely all of us is materially left behind. Our molecules slowly decay, whether cremated, buried, donated to science etc... we will all eventually become part of the earth and therefore the universe to be randomly divided into new life. It takes a long amount of time but all organic matter is recycled into the universe. The "why bother" part is much more complex of course. It has yet to be proven that the universe will die. It's possible that the spatial expansion(the expansion of space itself) will decelerate at some point in the future of the universe. There is no real understanding of things on that scope in science as we understand it. If you mean nothing left of us as a conscience entity, that's already a foregone conclusion. Perhaps the cycles of chance will allow you to be renewed in a multiverse scenario trillions of years in the future?:) My philosophy however tends to agree with you. It may not be healthy emotionally but I have always thought about how tiny we are as human beings. A meaningless drop in a universe so massive and complex that we as sole human lives can barely make a difference on our tiny planet in our arbitrary galaxy. However, the "big picture" for me is so freeing that it brings me joy. That's exactly why we can do what we feel passionate about. We can chase whatever feelings and dreams we have. There is no responsibility to an overbearing truth; only responsibility to our limitations imposed by a ignorant human brain. The universe is beyond comprehension truly. Along with insane economic privileges', that curiosity is why we are able to explore the limit of the human brain in our limited place in this unimaginable world.
I love the way he approaches that concept of "why study that?" The curiosity is what drives him. He wants to know how they work. There doesn't need to be any more reason than that.
Exactly, there are many fields where research has been done on topics noone yet knew how to use, but proved very useful later on. One example is number theory, which is now ver, important for cryptography
@@EvilTaco Or Boolean algebra
@@EvilTaco ahh I love breaking down code
But I can only do basic such as Cesar cipher and thats that. Hahaha
@@EvilTaco It's also good for people to seek knowledge that never turns out to have any "use" nor make anybody money. Knowledge is its own end, not just some means to an end.
Okay, but then you don't get to complain about college costing too much. It's your tuition dollars that are funding this.
Understanding the formation of snowflakes - their shape and size - has a lot of practical applications. For example, different types of snowflakes have different coefficients of frictions when they are part of a snowpack layer on a mountain side. Such knowledge helps in understanding the conditions under which avalanches occur, therefore help in modelling and forecasting avalanches.
When people call this guy a snowflake, he just says “oh my goodness, thank you!”
Hahha yes. Beautiful and complex
Ha Ha! I knew there would be a snowflake joke in the comments. =)
"thats the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me :') "
best reply ive ever read
😂😂😂
Ken's excitement about his field is truly captivating.
If you or everyone want to have Ken's knowledge about this filed then you need to be teaching Foundational principle of electric instead the base 101 of electric. All electron moved or behave just like what ? If the earth is proton then the moon is electron, If (the earth + the moon ) is the Push gravity then the sun is Pull gravity. An Atom's constructional space is just a fraction super nano version of Solar system that' s all.
@@baogiangsongque5507 @Lac Di you really don't know what you are talking about.
What you are describing is the very naive teaching in high school to give a first intuition.
In higher study you will learn that quantum physics is completely different from solar system and it's gravity.
Electron don't orbite the nucleus like earth around the sun. It has a probability distribution around the nucleus that can have many different shape, some spheric, some very strange. The electron is not really localised in one place, it is diluted in its atomic orbital.
Search orbital atomic to learn more.
@@inconnuunknown8770 Your mind set really has big problem. There are 2 main principle: human's law and nature's law and combine both Which one is powerful best then that's as is. Rain from up to down by the nature's law but you can make human's rain from down revert up by a sprinkler pressure. You tell me that the human's law better than the nature's law. I hear this voice everywhere when the uneducational right kids want something from their mother >>>???
P/s: the problem nowaday that the education teched the kids what are right but not what are wrong >? Self learning every moment thinking is how compare between right Vs wrong and how it is forming ???
@@baogiangsongque5507 I find it really difficult to read your comment and interpret it as something wrong with current education. The way science has progressed is by asking whether something should do one, or another thing. Figuring out which it is by carefully testing it. Now you know the answer and can use it. Nature is only exploring some of the careful tests, humans build more because we look for answers nature alone isn't giving. There is no conflict in that, no wrongness. Just science and the fruitful search for answers
"As a scientist, you want to figure something out."
Contributing to the collective knowledge accumulated over millenia just because it's not already known. Badass.
They didn't go down this rabbit hole, but like Steve Mould has explained before, sometimes searching for answers leads to discoveries that are useful, whether the initial question was "important" or not.
The whole point of science is to figure stuff out, this guy gets it
@@kruks exactly! We won't fully understand how useful something like this is off the bat. It could be one of those things that in 100 years someone looks back and it solves some super complex problem.
Such a vast area of discovery too. Aplicable to a degree in all forms of crystalisation. Pushing the unknown always further back, for ever.
Has anyone figured out women yet?
Can we get a scientist on that?
This guy seems so happy to be talking about his work. That smile the whole time.
It's always fun to watch someone who is a master of their craft.
Someone should collaborate with him to make a jewellery collection
@@allamasadi7970 Dude, that's an amazing idea. Algorithmically generated snowflake shapes, so each product is different.
You found *Nothing* queer strange peculiar or anomalous about the question:"Are all* snowflakes unique"?!
I work in meteorology with part of my job being to photograph and determine which types of snowflakes are falling at a given time. Basically I travel around Canada chasing horrible winter weather to take measurements and identify snowflakes.
Love the video! You just made my week.
Does a wetter heavier snow, versus a lighter fluffy feeling snow have a makeup that favours one type of snowflake over the other? In terms of flat plate like ones and rod/bullet shaped ones?
... you know, discounting slush and old treaded-upon snow that always gets wet and heavy feeling.
I am sorry for the weather
Sound like the best job anyone could have.
@@smillman437 I don't know if I can perfectly answer your question, but I'll give it a long-winded shot.
Snowflakes form way up in the sky where the temperature and humidity is far different from ground temperature and humidity. For this reason there is no real strong correlation between ground temperature and snowflake type. That being said, you do notice trends especially at a given location with similar weather fronts. I am up in BC right now and am finding because of the mountains and landscape the sky can be much cooler than in the valley below causing snow to fall at much warmer ground temperatures than in a more flat area. For this reason you can get plates or needles at above zero temperatures and have it be wet and "packy" snow.
We classify snowflakes into one of 10 categories that we put on a scale from F1 to F10. F1 F2 being a plate, F3 F4 being needles and columns, F5 - F7 being what we call irregular crystals (like a broken clump of crystals, not flat like a plate or long and skinny like a column or needle), and F8 - F10 being different forms of snow pellets, hail, and ice pellets. When snowflakes are shifting to a different type, you generally see it change to something that is next to it on the scale. For example I rarely observe snow go from an F1 to F10, but often obverse an F1 to F3 to F7 to F8 to rain transition.
Intensity and snowflake type are not correlated. You can get every type of snowflake at every intensity. What is correlated though is visibility and snowflake type at a given intensity. Plates, with their flat and large surface area, make visibility way worse than if you had a needle or column falling down with the same rate of intensity. This is why using visibility as a metric for snow intensity is not accurate and far from ideal.
@@filosofodemierda That was the last thought on my mind last February when I was out testing in 110kph winds....
I had one of this guy's snowflake books as a kid. It really fascinated me. Whenever it snows and the snowflakes land on my sleeve I always find myself trying to look at them up close.
which book
I always looked at them up close and was fascinated!
I did that without reading any books ☺ and I️ still do it.😜
Book would be a nice gift 🎁 for holidays
If I wanted to think about tomorrow, I would really want to think about yesterday again. This spicy writing is supposed to represent an exclamation, a kind of scream from an inwardly oppressed soul. I am almost blackish on the inside when I think of the current circumstances of our society. But not from an egoistic perspective, no, rather from an altruistic, self-sacrificing perspective that foresees a bad future for this world. For a world in which nothing dominates anymore. In a world that is an anarchy of feelings. But even here it doesn't matter how I feel about the world. I know you disagree. That’s yours. But only according to the rules of this world. Because in the end, when the beginning and middle and end of the times are over, only what you did counts. You can do whatever you feel like doing. We live in a society of pleasure, in which every individual pursues his goal erratically: the satisfaction of his needs. Be it sexually, financially, or otherwise. It no longer matters what needs you meet. The only thing that matters here is the fact that every person who kills their time here is a lost person. I know you're only here because you're acting out of fear. Fear of rejection, fear of failure? I hope for you that you know that if you waste your time here, your fear will not decrease. Because every day is worse than the previous one!
That’s the “coolest” thing I’ve seen all day! Love how the professor is just “chilling” in his chair while explaining complex science! ❄️
Underrated 😭
A constant smile on my face watching this. His joy working on this deceptively complex puzzle that has been hiding under our noses is infectious. His pursuit of knowledge is admirable.
some useless ed math theoreom is now useful again !
Plants use the same system to grow.
@@legobrickabrac I do. I use excitement to write music and lyrics and to conceive of and mentally work on ideas for machines that I later set about building. I don't know why, but excitement is powerful fuel.
@@rowanmurphy5239 Are you a musician or are you using metaphors?
@@legobrickabrac lol plants don't use the same system to grow.... there's a slight difference what with the DNA
snowflakes all turn out differently, plants somehow manage to grow to nearly the same shape.... it's not even a good analogy
A math professor of mine researches bubbles and shares his research with similar enthusiasm. It’s incredibly motivating.
He may live in a bubble lol
@@cz2301 I hate internet snowflakes!
I thought this video was going to be about liberal art students, not math professors
Bubbles are extremely important. I would assume he is studying cavitation. Bubble dynamics are incredibly important for so many areas that the general public aren't aware of. Every leading academic institution has a bubble dynamicist - usually a mathematician (fluid mechanics).
@@klmn2000 thank you for bursting the bubble on this obscure part of science
It's wild coming across this video, since my father did his PhD thesis on the physics of ice crystal growth in 1978. We grew up hearing so much about snowflakes (in a place with no snow XD) and seeing the detailed photographs he took with the equipment that was available then. He probably would have loved this.
Bless your father!
A constant end-to-end smile. So awesome to see someone that in love with what they do.
This guy is absolutely awesome, science needs more people like him. The excitement and joy he shows while talking about snowflakes is freaking contageous 😃
This is why he's so successful at it
@@Madmaniakid you are right.
would probably be a lot more common if people could divert all the money wasted on killing eachother in the military towards science.
he is so wholesome
I'd be enthusiastic af about lookin at ice crystals too if it was paying my bills
32 years ago, in my second grade elementary class we were learning about snowflakes or basically getting ready to just make one out of construction paper. I asked a question that has forever bothered me since that day "how do snowflakes get their shapes?" I was told "its because it turns to ice" and when I said "that doesn't answer how the shape is made", then I was told "we just don't know how snowflakes get their shape". Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht FINALLY answers this not just for himself but for anyone who asked the question "how do snowflakes get their shape" and was just told to accept a non answer. Now I can someday explain this to my kids. THANK YOU!
Maybe we can get a Doctor to answer the question I had for my DARE officer in grade school.
If heroin is from poppy plants, why did I eat a hamburger last night covered in poppy seeds?
Some questions NEED answering.
Others complicate the enjoyment of the beauty of nature.
@@truthsRsung ignorance is bliss I assume for some people. Someday this finding could be the missing piece to understanding fusion reactions or quantum computing, but maybe it's best we just sit back and enjoy nature instead.
@@truthsRsung yo eat hamurgers covered in poppy seeds to get high of course
@@alkemix .....I still haven't gotten an answer on the poppy seed buns.
I find that more relavent to my life than any benefit decoding the power of the sun has brought humanity.
How many nuclear reactors have we produced as opposed to nuclear bombs after Einstein?
Do we tend to use our education to help, or hurt our fellow man?
Don't be so flippity floppity when you reply.
Understanding EXACTLY how crystals grow is a VERY-VERY useful knowledge in real life. The quality of our electronics today is totally dependent on the purity of the semiconductor crystals, and that is just ONE example from the many thousands.
My science quote of the year:
"When you make a model and you sorta find it's supposed to do somethin' and it sorta does, it's just like...
...This might be RIGHT!"
This is why I love scientists. This man is staring at a near perfectly matching graph that you'd be lucky to get once in your life and... It *might* be right is the strongest he's willing to go.
Sorta right - he concludes there are NO 2 snowflakes alike - he calls it near impossible. BUT the remaining mystery in my eyes is WHY are there SIX poles to the the water 💧 molecules and hence the snowflakes ❄️?
@@Techprone1 From a structural pov, could it be because of the shape of the water molecule itself and the position of the separate charges on the molecule...?
@@Techprone1 I think it was somewhat explained in the video
@@Techprone1 6:35
As a Scandinavian I bow before the master of Snow.
Naahh, but really - Truly fascinating research and what an incredibly wonderful man! I could listen for hours upon hours on him talking about snowflakes. Thank you Derek for always bringing the most interesting people onto your channel!
I love his reasoning for studying snowflakes! Maybe we won’t really ever learn anything of any value from snowflakes but the curiosity is why we are where we are today and leads too undiscovered break troughs. We need way more people like him.
In order to understand snowflakes, he developed methods and experiments.
Snowflake technology is going to lead to Worm Holes, and then we can travel the galaxy. Didn't you hear what he said ;)
@@Scarrylaw It is a possibility.
Autistic & Asperger Syndrome people usually have "special interests" and somewhat obsessions over very specific stuff, so we already have people like him, we only need to encourage and support them to get where they want to be
@@cottonsheep2367 Yes, individuals are important. Beware of collectivist thought.
I had a smile on my face the entire time I was watching this. I love seeing people so passionate about their work. What a wonderful guy.
I have never seen someone so happy and dedicated about snowflakes. And I'm sincerely glad to live in a world where someone like that exists.
Imagine a world with to little collaboration that this level of specialization isn't possible for anyone. This is the pinnacle of civilization.
Be glad to live in a world with me too. **FARTS LOUD AF**
Veritasium has some of the best put together content on RUclips. It's so high quality. The fact that it's about such fascinating scientific topics is just a huge benefit to us all.
6:39 this 'locking into place' animation is so good, all the molecules barely move and yet instantly create a pattern
not just an animation, I think it's a simulation ^_^
Also, very easy to animate / simulate. Just start with a grid pattern like you see at the end, then from left to right unfreeze them and let them move freely and play it back reversed :)
@@UlookP i was wondering the same lol
@Dmitry 4c ^^
@Dmitry 4c Interstellar contributed huge parts of their work to black hole research and built an entire engine to simulate them for the movie
This guy is so genuinely buzzed about ice crystals. He forgot the haters and now Disney pay him generously to inform them exactly how Elsas magic should look at a scale impossible to discern at even 4K resolution.
I love this guy, he even has the Christmas wizard personality
LMAOOO so true
Makes me think of him as the guy at the snowflake lab in a winter special
Perfect in the Americas..... Not so Christmasy in Australia lol
Ikr
I love his comment on the saying "no two snowflakes are alike" because yea he's right most things with really any degree of complexity in nature are going to be differing in some way
As a scientist growing graphene crystals everyday, I'm always fascinated by crystal growth in snowflakes.
Although its from a different field, i'd love to introduce you to crystalline glazes in ceramics!! Zinc Silicate(willemite) crystals can be grown in the glaze matrix by controlling temperature and duration during the firing process. I think this fusion between art and science is just simply beautiful to witness.
do you see any parallels between the different researches?
Do you think it would be possible to grow super efficient solar cells using CRISPR to modify a fungus from Fraser Island, Australia and glass sea sponge DNA?
Could you apply crystallisation occuring here to graphene?
@@abyssstrider2547 I was wondering the same thing. Like what parameters could you use to drive the crystalline structure? Temperature and pressure? This would be fascinating.
I really like how his eyes are shining while sharing his works to people. Is it weird that I feel motivated to do anything from his enthusiasm?
Not weird at all
Yes.
Please repress any feelings that might have awoken.
Please refrain from going outside to explore and or discover anything.
Please do not learn or share knowledge at any time.
Just take it as it always has been and always will be.
Thank you
Fox News
16:24 "When you make a model, and you sort of find it's supposed to do something, and it sort of does, it's just like, 'This might be right!'" This is the reward for dedication and passion in science. That feeling you get when you finally crack the nut and nature reveals just a little bit of herself is so gratifying.
I was a little afraid of confirmation bias when I heard him say that. But I am counting on the reviewers and sc. community to try to properly disprove the idea - if possible ;)
@@lorenzakastylecrew he did everything correctly according to the scientific method. Make a hypothesis, and then do an experiment to test it. After that it's the work of him and everyone else to try and disprove it like you said.
That's the same feeling I get when I change a light bulb and I flip the switch. The bulb lights up my emotions of success.
You found *Nothing* queer strange peculiar or anomalous about the question:"Are all* snowflakes unique"?!!
From the perspective of a grad student of Complex Systems, this video is incredibly educational, it hits all the right spots, from the purpose and extents of modelling, to the cross-validation with experiments, to the sheer joy of discovering that you might have got it right :)
And ultimately, the drive of science - of studying anything, really - is human curiosity and even intellectual pride after all, and it's marvellous and fun as it is.
Keep up the amazing work!
I'm currently studying Ice, in the university on Svalbard, and watching this made me fall in love with my field all over.
Thank you!
I did not know these are fields of study. I knew about avalanche research but snowflakes and ice? I regret my choice of career now 😐
That's really, no pun intended, cool. You should post a RUclips video about your area of .research
You study ice? Why? What could that possibly be used for? 😉
@@odeode4338 Haha, I worked ten years as a welder before going into engineering and discovering this Masters degree, so its never too late XD
@@The757packerfan Why not?
Well, the coolest field this would be useful is in astrophysics, strangely enough space is quite cold :P
I don know how this guys warmth hasn't melted every snowflake he has ever created
I love everyone’s appreciation for his drive, efforts, impact & enthusiasm.
30-40 minutes to make each snowflake BLEW MY MIND! 🤯 Hands down my favorite piece of your content ever! As other's have mentioned, this one really was a “drop what you're doing and pay close and undivided attention--this is *VERY* Important!” So much so, I actually had to restart the video, since I'd only marginally tuned in for the first few minutes. Sure, it may never lead to atom splitting and probably even less likely to lead to atom combining, but this right here, The Snowflake Guy, this is the gas that drives the whole vehicle of humanity's progression. Curiosity for curiosity’s sake. Imagine where the world would be if A. Everyone were so uncompromisingly passionate about their work. And B. Allowed themselves to turn that passion into an unapologetic search for meaning. We'd have conquered the cosmos centuries ago!
"Snowflake Guy" is a hell of a job
Yeah helll right,,,
LIBRULS BE LIKE
Snowflake Scientist
@@joratto2833 HE'LL YAEH BREATHER🤘🤘🤘
He made them a little safe space and everything
It is so wholesome to see Dr Libbrecht light up talking about his favourite topic!
Thank you, Derek, for giving those people a chance to share their findings to milions of people! We really enjoy it!
This bring new meaning to you can be whatever you want
A wonderful episode, love it! 😌
hello gizo
*_yeah_*
😃😃
Dr. Libbrecht's enthusiasm is contagious! I'm lovin his love for science!
My favorite line, and one I've used in the past: "No two snowflakes are alike, because no two follow the same path." Years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about why we're all different and I replied, "It isn't just genetics. Just like snowflakes, we all follow our own path -- and that helps make us who we are."
True. Phenotype = genotype + environment. Everyone's environment is different.
I guess you must be waiting just around the riverbend as well.
This is really true especially when considering identical twins separated at a young age. They often end up looking very different due to environmental factors causing different outcomes from dna expression (i dont recall the actual terms or mechanisms but it’s basically like that.)
WOW ur, like, making my mind, like, implode maaan. What an original take thought you had.
@@ibrahimtall6209 you're obnoxious
I’m an adult engineer and I’ve seen all your videos. I think this video best captures the great feeling one gets exploring the scientific method. I don’t know if you set out to make an inspirational video about what drives a scientist or asked questions or edited with that goal, but you’ve clearly achieved that result. To youngsters of a certain age I could see this video (much more than others like it) being particularly inspirational to choose a college or major or career path in science. If I was to choose one video to show a budding scientist, it would be this one. Great work as always.
Unrelated, but when you say adult engineer, does that imply the existence of child engineers? Or that you work in the adult industry? (Not serious, just joking)
aptly put
@@iiiivvvv9986 You misunderstood; he engineers adults.
What is it with engineers always wanting to tell strangers that they're engineers.
@@zwan1886 bcs school is hell. When I graduate you damn right I'm telling people.
I have followed Ken's research for years, and have bought his books by the case and given them out as Christmas gifts.
I think I'll follow suit in the future.
This is the first time I see someone who is doing stuff related to science and Is happy and excited about it.
Bought a book by this guy after he was a guest lecturer visiting my meteorology department during undergrad around ten years ago. Love seeing what he's done since, his enthusiasm for the science hasn't waned!
i love seeing someone talk about what they’re passionate and educated in. he looks so happy talking about what he’s worked on and discovered
400 yrs ago peoples like him were held at the edge of the village . Build him alittle house there so he can listen to wolves the entire winter
I wondered not why he is so interested in snow flakes, I wondered how he got the money to do research on snow flakes. If he was doing only theoretical work, that's alright but he has some serious lab equipment there. I bet there are some practical implications of this research because creating such surfaces with a lot of surface area per volume is quite useful in a lot of research fields.
It is so satisfying to see someone so passionate about physics, so capable in his field, yet so humble and so sensitive to the beauty of the science she/he does. This is a great video.
That's actually most physicists, once you meet them. Most scientists, even.
I'd say that the kind of person who wants to understand the world around them is almost never the same kind of person who's self-centered, out for personal gain, or otherwise terrible.
@@delphicdescant As a physicist myself, I'd say that is the ideal case. Scientists SHOULD be like that, yet unfortunately through my still short career I've faced a reality where some of them are simply making ends meet with what they thought would be their passion. Thankfully this is not the general case, but rather an exception. What I find extraordinary about this man are the facts that he is so knowledgeable, so humble and that he has an impressive ability to communicate the physics while still making his passion so explicit to anyone who listens to him: I think that's wonderful.
I spent a winter in the Arctic and the snow was so different from what I had experienced all my life. With average temps around -40 and seeing this research I finally get why. Thanks
How & why did you spend a winter in the arctic?
@@-flanders-8975 work
I'm thankful that there are people who have such strong passions that they take time to learn as much as they can with no promise for money, fame, or even real use. So thank you Dr. Ken, Veritasium, and everyone who enjoys asking questions and finding answers!
What's even more incredible is when we find a usefulness for data such as this. I'm still waiting on a Frozen ray gun and who knows maybe Dr. Ken will make it in 20 years.
@@konan3792 That'd be better than flying cars.
I love this approach of "We don't know anything it and someone needs to figure it out....you know what I'll go and figure this out" I wish more people were like him.
There is an abundance of people like him. What's lacking is political will to finance their work.
"Fine, I'll do it myself"
I'm reminded of Destin from smarter every day making the vortex ring generator because he knew nobody else would do it
The stuff he discovered may prove to be useful in space travel or something like that.
It basically just expands the fundamentals of water and ice physics. And since all our life is based around water, I think this is important to know.
Exactly, understanding the physics of crystal formation can have huge benefits in all sorts of other fields, like car batteries or electronics manufacturing.
@@falconerd343 Yes, very good examples :D
@@falconerd343 *All manufacturing. Imagine if we could grow a perfect metallic crystal to practical specifications, it would revolutionize aerospace manufacturing for starters, but the knock on effects would be tremendous
Yeah I was thinking it could be used to learn about other planets climates by knowing what conditions it when through, though I suppose you would need more research with different atmospheres and such.
Exactly! Other user commented saying, "aww look at his face while studying snowflakes" and it got thousands of like. what a dumbass. Just because he is studying "Snowflakes" does not mean he is studying smth childish or cute. His study is gonna help us enormously understanding water molecules, interaction of water molecules with different gases in atmosphere etc, etc. God damn people are so dumb
Snowflakes are interesting but you really upped the game. Well done 👏
This video had me in complete tears, as a physics student, seeing someone so passionate and dedicated to something so apparently unimportant yet so beautiful it’s such an amazing thing, I’m literally crying
damn u got me too
Toward the end of the video when it started discussing how well his hypothesis matched with his experimental results regarding Nakaya’s model, I got particularly teary eyed. His passion and the payoff of his work is so inspiring and uplifting!
No learning is ever unimportant- the closest it ever gets is knowledge might not be important /*yet*/
Studying water vapor trails improved rocket nozzle designs and made injet printers able to print shaper smaller images.
There are a million other examples.
I may not know what knowing more about snowflakes will get us, but I am absolutely sure it will be critical knowledge eventually, to someone somewhere.
@@ghostinthebox the moment you stop learning is the moment shared in time with when you stop living. Only experience will tell me if this stays true for my reality! Cheers!
@@ghostinthebox that’s exactly what I said, apparently unimportant
Every now and then, Derek posts a video that makes me stop everything and hyperfocus on something that I never questioned but now feel like it's something I always wanted to know.
I once saw a perfect snowflake fall on the seat of my moms car when I opened the door back when we lived north of Iceland. It must have had a 2mm - 3mm radius or something, it was so visible. Been fascinated since. Keep up the good work! Curiosity is more than enough inspiration to pursue passions! Not everything has to have practical value, emotional value can be worth just as much, if not more.
as a dane, i love your surname
Understanding how snowflakes work will have a practical value, we just don't know what it is yet
Once our teacher told us Iceland is green and Greenland is ice 🤔 it is called so, in history, so that no one goes to conquer the land because it is all ice. İs it true?
@@marrastreamheart8542 does it mean daughter of apples?
@@FringeWizard2 close, appelsin oddly means "orange" in many european languages, which is confusing, so it's actually orange daughter
this was deeply satisfying, having only ever seen images of perfect, symmetrical snowflakes. It felt difficult for me to believe that something that's the result of so much variation would always come out looking exactly perfect
My main takeaway from this, is that you just taught me - in mere seconds - a satisfying explanation to how (water) molecules bond.
No teacher has ever fully made me UNDERSTAND how it is done. You are an extraordinary teacher, and had I had you in physics class, I would have probably pursued a physics education.
That bond animation set every piece of the puzzle straight
most probably you never heard your teacher with the same attention
@@abhinav.mp4 truth lol. It's just a basic, albeit well done, description of the polar nature of water molecules. Nothing magical about the description here.
@@abhinav.mp4 Well that's one assumption. I am quite an inquisitive person, and when I don't feel like I understand a subject, I will ask a million questions in a million different ways until I do. But yes, of course I do listen more intensely here and rewind if I missed something - but asking questions isn't really a possibility here either.
I'd say my teachers still had the upper hand regarding opportunity to teach me.
Hearing that man talk about his life and seeing the way he felt about that achievement was so awesome! Deciding you wanted to be somebody that figured something out like that and actually doing it like that has to be one if the greatest feelings a person can have. It was really nice that you were able to capture the sensation of that feeling of fulfillment and share it with all of us like that. You are truly my favorite person on RUclips Veritasium!
This man has changed my view of science, yet again. Snowflake production wasn't even on on radar (look that up) but now I know a bit more how it works.
Absolutely. The real beauty of science is where there is no plan or scheme other than simply understanding our reality with more clarity. I fully believe passionate science just for the sake of it is one of the most noble professionals a person can have. It reminds me of being a child, but in a much more complex space. We are all just children of the universe just trying to figure out what's going on.
What an exemplar of a physicist! “We have to know how that works damn it!” That's physicists in a nutshell. I loved this!
he sounded so guilty but proud saying "damn it", too xD
@@ERROR-ei5yv I noticed that too haha; maybe he wasn't sure if it was ok to say on the video or not.
or scientists in general lol
bro
There is something so nice about seeing someone being incredibly enthusiastic and enjoying doing something because they just like it and they can
I wish my physics teacher was as enthusiastic about science as Dr. Ken is. His passion for his field of study makes me want to learn about snowflakes too.
That's the difference between passion and salary.
I had the honor to have an enthusiastic physics teacher. Actually even twice. Definitely the best lectures I've ever had. Unfortunately that still didn't make me a physicist.
@@sicfxmusic exactly
I also had a great physics teacher and he was one of, if not, my favorite teachers. I love that class so much and learned so much from him too. I had lots of questions and he took his time with me to see if we can answer almost all of them which felt so satisfying!
This is one of the best videos you have made Derek. The illustrations. The science. The engagement. Even the history and old images
Veritasium is the one science channel that I’ve been following from Elementary school to College and still consistently learn from
same!
Nerd
same! it was my first science channel that i followed
It made me realize that you can love science.
@@mrcookies409 ^^
This guy shows what attitude youll have when you follow your passions in life
I like how the guy is so giddy about his work. He's so excited and keeps smiling lol. That's a real scientist right there lol. Never worked a day in his life because he just loves what he does.
He reminds me a lot of Professor Ed Copeland and Professor Mike Merrifield from the University of Nottingham that show up on Sixty Symbols a lot. Those guys display the same unending enthusiasm about their work that this guy does.
This man is able to construct snowflakes that never would have come to exist within nature on its own due to his ability to change the conditions so fast.
*and he does*
This work has much broader practical applications than he talked about. The most common method of purifying compounds after synthesis or extraction is called 'recrystallization'. Finding a solvent mix and temperature range to do that can be tricky, particularly for organic molecules with complex shapes. If the crystals grow too needle-like or too plate-like they clog up the container and trap solvents and byproducts, so it's important to find an intermediate range of saturation and temperature so they can be purified.
I also see a practical use of his observations in material science. Careful control of crystal growth in metallurgy for example.
Controlled crystallization also has implications in semiconductors.
Fresh out of ochem 101
It's also indirectly used in nanocrystal synthesis, with the same kind of logic you can steer the shape of the nanocrystal to what you want
That’s so cool
My word I wish I was as passionate about anything to this magnitude. What a great guy.
Hexagons once again being bestagons. Love this guy. "What the world needs is more people who have come alive." You can't plan ahead where this kind of basic research will go. Organically self-assembling materials? And surely crystal growth (and controlling it) has many applications.
It's just fractal patterns governed by electromagnetism.
@@legobrickabrac an entire lifetime into studying this for some random youtuber to say "it's just blah blah."
That's why the video is about the guy who actually understands this complex phenomenon and not you.
@@solidtank7957 I didn't say bla bla, I said the patterns are governed by electromagnetism or more specifically frequency vibration. Similar fractal patterns and effects happens to sand on metal plate when sound frequency is added to it. I vas created fractal patterns in graphic design software and was one of My favourite things to do about 15 years ago. I am also a music producer and do sound desighn which is understateding and manipulating sound wave frequency to get the sound I want. I am also an electrician. You dont know anything about Me.
@@legobrickabrac So you a bit of a know-it-all? If you are really that superbly versed in all the intricate science fields involved, then good for you. But I have to sadly admit that I have yet to meet a single person, who tells me what they know and do, and that it's simply this or that, or it's way easier than that, etc., who can actually back up their claims and excel at every one of their proclaimed masteries. In every case up until now, the person who one would generally call a "know-it-all" will fail at even explaining or praciticing the most single tasks in the fields he claims to be an expert on. You would be the first if I'm mistaken here. In that case ignore the rest and leave it up to the person my previous statement applies to.
If it really is so easy and the life-achievement of the guy presenting his research in this video is without value and/or new insight as you try to make it sound (I did this or that 15 years ago, nothing new), then get yourself into the scientific discourse and be the next guy on such a video, or make ones yourself. Be the one to revolutionize the field. Because as it was said in the video, up until now there was no proven explanation. Of many million, billion people on earth. Collective information. If you're not capable of that, or don't want to do that out of convenience, or one of the many other ludicrous reasons I have heard, then you're unfortunately just one of many. One of many of those who claim but fail to provide. Of those fallen victim to the dunning-kruger-effect of doom. I don't want to insult you, neither do I want to discredit you. I'm just sick of people downplaying other peoples achievements for placing themselves in the stage lights. It's the same kind of ppl that are like "I could've thought of that too, it's not that hard/big of an achievement/special/...", but haven't thought of it and are now salty that they don't get the big money or fame, because if something get's explained nicely and gets presented all finished and polished, it often seems SO easy, but it actually isn't. Just an example of my thought process. The lates video of "Stuff Made Here". I'm sure many people could have thought about creating a charge powered nutcracker, especially after his baseball bat video, etc. Even my initial reaction was "Wow cool, so simple but so cool. Anyone could've made that". But after seeing the work, I as always realized, I wouldn't even have the skillset to machine, desing and especially >calculate< a fraction of the stuff that is and was necessary to make it safe and make it work. There is so much you can't think of, so much you don't get in this initial burst of recognition that it feels blasphemous going "Ah man it's just a (nail) gun shell powered baseball bat, powered by some pressure". Instead of that I find way more joy in marveling at the ingeniuity of my fellow human beings and admiring their work and really being happy for them to finally achieve something that they worked hard for, instead of dismissing it as easy, or not very interesting. Maybe try it out someday. Have a nice day my friend and enjoy life.
@@dustvoice I think his work is great as he is showing and capturing it and proving himself correct. Not sure why Me saying its governed by electromagnetism creates such upset. He dont care what We think so why are you fighting for him? I never heard of this guy or his work or if I did then I forgot. He dont care what you think or what I think. He does his work for him self.
I was sitting in a cold car some years ago waiting for my husband to come out of a store (he’s a SLOW shopper) when it started to snow lightly. The conditions were such that about one in five of the flakes hitting the windshield in front of me was a fully formed flake. They were so beautiful!! I could have watched for hours, cold forgotten. Of course I must have looked like I was on LSD to anyone passing by but who cares? Beautiful memory for me.
I hope I marry someone like you. What a beautiful memory.
give it up for slow shopping!
Imagine if you had been on LSD
I picked a leaf off a tree once and held it up to a streetlight and looked at the veins for so long that I eventually realized all my friends were staring at me, and one of them said "What the hell are you looking at?!" Those are the moments you realize you just arent the same as everyone else lol
@@skeetsmcgrew3282 You've the heart of a scientist
Man, He's so wholesome and clearly loves what he does. I love it
This is just ONE example of how creative the designer is. Like it has no end to it.