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Rick A. Allen

Beautiful as individuals, deadly in mass

Published 7 months ago • 2 min read

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Beautiful as individuals, deadly in mass

Dear Reader,

It's that time of year again, when (depending on where you live) the snow falls. When I lived in Syracuse, it was inundating feet of snow with the redeeming factor that Syracuse has more snowplows per capita than anywhere else (or at least I thought so).

It's much nicer here in Colorado Springs, where we get less snow and it melts away much quicker. And I can enjoy seeing snow on the top of Pikes Peak while my driveway is clear.

It's often said that no two snowflakes are alike, and while I used to think that was a myth, it turns out it's pretty true. And scientists have gone to great lengths to test that hypothesis.

​Snowflakes form when water droplets attach to a particle of something in the air and freeze. The great variety of shapes depends on the temperature and humidity. They typically form six-sided shapes due to the hexagonal nature of crystals. But not always. There are also three- and twelve-branched snowflakes.

A pastor in the mid-1800s, Israel Perkins Warren, developed one of the earliest classifications of snowflakes, identifying almost 100 variations (pictured at left).

In 1885, Wilson Alwyn Bentley photographed thousands of snowflakes with a microscope, searching in vain for identical flakes.

Currently, the International Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground includes at least 80 separate shapes. Even within these shapes, scientists have not found any two in the wild that were exactly the same (although recently, scientists have grown identical snowflakes in lab conditions).

Have a Merry Christmas!

What's Rick Reading Now?

I just finished When Christmas Comes, by Andrew Klavan. Don't let the title fool you; this isn't a feel-good Hallmark-movie-type novel (also not sci-fi; I like to change it up now and then). It's a murder mystery featuring a solver who is a former Special Ops guy turned English professor, whose key to whodunit is putting himself in the murderer's thought pattern. I enjoyed it!

Promotions (free stuff and more!)

For those of you with Kindle Unlimited:

Here's a new book from Richard Rimmington that introduces his Infinite Void series, a space opera about a small band of survivors fighting to prevent the total destruction of humanity. It's free!

Happy Reading!

Rick A. Allen

The Star Riders series:

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Copyright 2025 by Rick A. Allen, all rights reserved

613 Columbia Court, Colorado Springs, CO 80904

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Rick A. Allen

Science Fiction Author

A little about me: I'm an older guy who grew up reading great science fiction by such masters as Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, and Robert Heinlein. My favorite current authors are Neal Stephenson and Alastair Reynolds. I started writing a few years ago to try to create a book (and now series) that I think my younger self would have loved to read. Hopefully you will, too! And if you have any comments, I promise to always read your emails to me, and provide a response. I love hearing from my readers!

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