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Frosty Fractals

Episode 13 of 13

How does something as ordinary as ice create such complex and beautiful patterns? Hannah and Dara investigate the frosty ferns that formed on listener Jane's car roof.

One winter morning, listener Jane opened her curtains to find her car roof covered in breathtaking, fern-like frost so intricate it looked like a William Morris print. But how does something as ordinary as ice create patterns so beautifully complex?

Hannah and Dara explore this crunchy, slippery, delicately patterned branch of chemistry to uncover the rules and mysteries that govern the extra-ordinary world of ice. Why does ice come in so many shapes and sizes? And does all ice form at 0 degrees Celsius? Is every snowflake truly unique? We have questions a plenty for our eager chemists, who, as all good chemists do, have a few demonstrations up their sleeves to help explain.

And we explore nature鈥檚 hidden geometry to find why these frost ferns follow the same rules as lightning bolts, river deltas and even human lungs.

You can send your everyday mysteries for the team to investigate to: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Contributors
Sarah Hart 鈥 Professor Emerita of Mathematics, Birkbeck University of London
Christoph Salzmann 鈥 Professor of Physical and Materials Chemistry, UCL
Dr Thomas Whale 鈥 Lecturer, Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds

Producer: Emily Bird
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A 麻豆社 Studios Production

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Mon 29 Dec 2025 15:30

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  • Sat 27 Dec 2025 10:00
  • Mon 29 Dec 2025 15:30

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