| Perhaps Kepler was the first person to write about the problem of snowflake formation. |
| In his 1611 treatise "On the Six-Cornered Snowflake," Kepler identified the main problem as understanding the spontaneous emergence of the ordered structure of snowflakes - that is, the morphogenesis of snowflake patterns. |
| From the modern perspective, we understand this growth starts when water vapor condenses on a particle of dust or soot, and continues as water vapor condenses along parts of the snowflake already formed. |
| As it condenses, water vapor gives up some heat which must be carried away from the ice crystals, and the rate of growth of the snowflake is governed by the flow of this heat away from the ice. |
| Diffusion of water vapor to the growing crystal, and of the heat away from the crystal, suggest snowflakes grow by a process similar to DLA. |
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