Snowflakes
How does a snowflake know how to be symmetrical? Think about it. A snowflake forms by the coalescing of molecules of water vapour out of the atmosphere up in the clouds. Billons and trillions of molecules – H2O – two hydrogens on each oxygen atom. A nucleus – a piece of dust – first allows the condensation process to begin. The rate of condensation of molecules onto the nucleus and the growing ice crystal is phenomenal – billions per nanosecond, something like that. Consider an approaching molecule – it has to find a spot to join on to the ice crystal – but how does it know to slot into position A where it will mirror the other five branches of the snowflake, and not mess it all up by slotting into position B? There must be some form of communication between the newly arriving molecule and the pattern which is already there. Something on the quantum level – perhaps a kind of energy field which occupies the structure of the snowflake. Miraculous. So simple and yet we haven’t yet figured out what’s going on.
And where does this perception of beauty come from? What is it that generates awe? When we look at a snowflake through a microscope, to find so much beauty there is breathtaking – it makes us wonder at how it is that it can be so beautiful? It can’t be a survival trait in us can it? Maybe it actually is. Evolution stands the truth tests well, and the perception of natural beauty is also a universally accepted truth. Yet if we evolved through a process of natural selection, how can the perception of natural beauty give us a survival edge over our competitors? At first glance it seems illogical, and yet the feeling is certainly real. A possible sensible reason could be that it is actually a survival plus for a species to care for the environment in which it lives. If we bugger our planet with global warming caused by fossil fuel use, then we are ultimately certain to bring about our own demise. When we see natural beauty we are compelled to look after the world which nurtures us and so by logical extension we are ensuring our own survival. So maybe we really do have evolution to thank for our appreciation of nature.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
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