My doctoral project sets out to tell the eclectic history of snowflake science over three-and-a-half centuries. But in telling this history, my larger goal is to discover what insights this history can give us about the long-term history of modern science. 

Snow crystals have been studied by people across the globe for centuries, capturing the attention of people from various backgrounds, each of whom had particular motivations for studying them. These studies took place in diverse spaces, from living rooms to climate-controlled laboratories, as well as in diverse scientific contexts, from natural-historical curiosity to military-funded research programmes. Though it has a long history, the study of snowflakes rarely attracted many researchers or large amounts of funding. It was therefore continuously adapted to fit the scientific fashions and priorities of different times. This makes it a useful mirror for viewing the development of modern natural science. 

This project has received funding from: