3 ms·

A Vermont farmer proved no snowflakes are alike

• kataklasm 4y ago
  The work Bentley did sounds very impressive and I in no way strive to downplay his archival achievements. I do however take offense with the semantics of the wording. Not finding an exception isn't what proving means. Or, as Dr. Carl Sagan put it: absence of evidence != evidence of absence.
  • stormking 4y ago
    Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. The correct saying is: Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
    • maria2 4y ago
      Overly pedantic
      • Jarwain 4y ago
        It seems like an important distinction. Evidence != Proof
        • maria2 4y ago
          It's a meaningless distinction.
• eesmith 4y ago
  I remember hearing about someone discovering two very similar snowflakes. Ahh, found it. Nancy C. Knight, "No Two Alike?" Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1988. https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/1520-0477-69_5_496.pdf https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/... and available via https://scholar.archive.org/search?q=Nancy+Knight%C2%A0-+Bulletin+of+the+American+Meteorological+Society%2C+1988 https://scholar.archive.org/search?q=Nancy+Knight%C2%A0-+Bul... . > Figure 1, a photograph of actual snow crystals, not replicas, illustrates a striking example of two snow crystals which, if not identical, are certainly very much alike. ... The two very similar snowflakes are in the bottom center of figure 1, side-by-side.
• klyrs 4y ago
  Counterpoint https://qz.com/1208669/meet-the-scientist-who-makes-identical-snowflakes https://qz.com/1208669/meet-the-scientist-who-makes-identica...