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Snow Crystal, Virginia, 1969

A cast of a snowflake shows the crystal's intricate pattern and delicate form. Like human fingerprints, no two snow crystals are identical. Among all the countless flakes that have fallen from the skies, no two with exactly the same size, pattern, and number of water molecules have ever been found.

—Adapted from "Snowflakes to Keep," January 1970, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Robert F. Sisson