Snowflakes

Scientific American just turned me onto this one:  No more four or five sided snowflakes, please!  The real six sided  (always six sided!) ones are beautiful enough:

(picture from snowcrystals.com)

No big deal, though - right?  Humans have five fingers but sometimes they have only four in cartoons.  True enough, but I think we all know the difference - and besides we are all a little creeped out when we notice the missing digit.  No one seems to get creeped out by a five sided snowflake

The six sides of a snowflake come from the hexagonal shape of the solid form of water.  If it didn't have that shape, then ice wouldn't float and we probably could not have evolved on this planet.   Primitive ocean life needs the ice to float so it can survive in the waters underneath.