Thoughts provoked

Snowflakes form when a cloud droplet first freezes into a tiny particle of ice Came across these beautiful intricate patterns while reading something on photonics- are they not simply awesome... mother nature.. bowing to you! Microphotographic images of snowflakes capture d by California Institute of Technology physics professor Kenneth Libbrecht will appear on US postal stamps beginning this month. His research is aimed at better understanding how structures arise in material systems, but it is also visually compelling and, from the start, has been a hit with the public: Libbrecht said his Web site, www.snowcrystals.com , is getting about two million hits a year. Ah! can any jewellery designer match this beauty....? Nature's intricate patterns

Slumdog Millionaire, the British-made film set in Mumbai which has become this year's word-of-mouth hit, continued its unstoppable rise. Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches flick, which is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize nominated novel Q and A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup , and has already won four Golden Globes earlier t his month, recently had its Indian premiere in Mumbai. It is one of five films in contention for best picture. The others are The Reader; Milk, the true story of America's first openly gay politician; Frost/Nixon, the dramatisation of Sir David Frost's televised showdown with former US President Richard Nixon; and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fantasy starring Brad Pitt as a man who ages backwards, which leads the race with 13 nominations. Each of the films has a best director nomination. "To win so many nominations is unbelievable and for two Indians to be in the nominations