Scientists are growing snowflakes now and it's absolutely beautiful

The intricate, unique beauty of every single snowflake pattern is lost on most of us - simply because they're too small to see with the naked eye.

Only under a microscope does the visually stunning process of their formation come to light - and that's just what one physicist is doing.

Caltech's Dr Ken Libbrecht, who acted as an 'ice consultant' for Disney's juggernaut animation Frozen (which also put him in the running for the coolest job title ever) grows them from scratch in his laboratory.

He says:

We still don't exactly understand why they [snowflakes] look like they do, so it's kind of fun to think about.

It's all part of an experiment to work out how the atoms and particles in crystal structures are pieced together - but we just like how pretty they are.

The video footage captured by Libbrecht of the microscopic crystals being formed makes for quite magical viewing.

Without further ado, here is the full process in action...

H/T: Great Big Story

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