The serious busines of snowflake science

Can't we all just get along?

When the Journal Nature featured an online ad with (*gasp*) an eight-sided snowflake, the snow hit the fan.

Luckily for the rest of us, Tomas Koop's middle name is vigilance.

• Koop thinks ice crystals are masterpieces of natural beauty. Unfortunately, he says, "This beauty is sometimes corrupted."  Especially at this time of year, when a blizzard of artistically rendered snowflake images sweeps through advertisements and store displays and greeting cards. Koop, who is a professor at Bielefeld University in Germany, says the problem is that many of these images show ice crystals with five sides, or eight sides. In other words, he says, they are scientific abominations."

Hear the whole story here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121827582

Or if you have a nature Login, read Koop's letter to Nature.