Stephen Wolfram

And so it makes it less likely for another piece of ice to accumulate right nearby.

So this leads to a kind of growth inhibition.

So you grow an arm and it is a separated arm

because right around the arm it got a little bit hot and it didn't add more ice there.

So what happens is it grows, you have a hexagon, it grows out arms, the arms grow arms, and then the arms grow arms grow arms, and eventually, actually it's kind of cool because it actually fills in another hexagon, a bigger hexagon.

And when I first looked at this, you know, I had a very simple model for this.

I realized, you know, when it fills in that hexagon, it actually leaves some holes behind.

So I thought, well, you know, is that really right?

So I look at these pictures of snowflakes, and sure enough, they have these little holes in them that are kind of scars of the way that these arms grow out.

So you can't fill in backfill holes.

They don't backfill, yeah.

They don't backfill.

I'm not sure.

I mean, the thing falls through the, I mean, I think it hits the ground at some point.

I think you can grow in the lab.

I think you can grow pretty big ones.

I think you can grow many, many iterations of this kind of goes from hexagon, it grows out arms, it turns back, it fills back into a hexagon, it grows more arms again.

In 3D?

No, it's flat usually.

No, it's fluffy.