HackerTube.dev

The Snowflake Myth

Veritasium · 10.6M views · 2021-12-01 · 18:49

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Veritasium visits snowflake expert Dr Ken Libbrecht, who grows designer snowflakes in the lab. The video explains how snowflakes form and why they take so many shapes.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a fantastic, scientist-led explanation of snowflake formation.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2022–2023

Topics

Search by tags

What people said

technojamin · 2023-12 · Strong recommendation

Here's a fantastic Veritasium video about snowflakes with a scientist that basically figured out all of the ways they can form: [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
shagie · 2022-12 · Reference

In lab situations, it is possible to grow "identical twins". Some various coverage on Professor Libbrecht and his snow flakes... KEQD: [LINK] Quartz: [LINK] Veritasium: [VIDEO] And if you want to dig deep: [LINK]

Read the original HN comment ↗
alexvoda · 2022-06 · Reference

You suggest that I do not see the forest for the trees. I say that words have meanings, and that extraordinary claims need evidence. A material in which atoms (or molecules) are aligned is called a crystal. The process by which atoms align is called crystallisation. If we expand the concept of alignment we may consider atoms that are part of a polymer molecule to be "aligned". A material in which larger structures are aligned is a metamaterial. Beyond this level, referring to the alignment of atoms does not make sense. Sound can affect the process of crystallisation of a liquid because the formation of crystals is influenced by pressure. See [VIDEO] But claiming that there is any crystallisation happening in a finished wooden stringed instrument requires evidence because it is implausible. If we refer to polymers, wood and glue and lacquer all contain polymers. But claiming that those polymers are in any way affected by sound also requires evidence. Also claiming that wooden instruments contain metamaterials and that the structure of those metamaterials can be altered by sound, similarly requires evidence. What I am saying is that you not only claimed the existence of an unlikely phenomenon, but you also confidently asserted that it can be explained by physics that contradicts current knowledge. I am claiming that this is the Dunning-Kruger effect in action. I have read the page you link and find it unconvincing. In my comment to Perenti ( [LINK] ) I have proposed an experime

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources