Ukichiro Nakaya
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese physicist
and science
essayist known for his work in glaciology
and low-temperature sciences. He is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes.
Nakaya was born near the Katayamazu hot springs
in Kaga
, Ishikawa Prefecture
, near the area depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu
, an encyclopedic work published in 1837 that contains 183 sketches of natural snowflake crystals – the subject that became Nakaya's life work.
Nakaya later wrote that his father wanted him to be a potter
and sent him to live with a potter while he was in primary school. His father died after he finished primary school, but
Nakaya's first scientific paper, written in 1924 for the inaugural issue of the proceedings of the Physics Department of Tokyo Imperial University, was devoted to Japanese Kutani porcelain
.
Nakaya was inspired to study physics
in high school by the nebular hypotheses of Kant
and Laplace
and by the works of Hajime Tanabe
.
He major
ed in experimental physics
under Torahiko Terada at Tokyo Imperial University and graduated in 1925. Soon thereafter, he became Terada's research assistant at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN
). Nakaya studied electrostatic discharge as an assistant professor at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1928 and 1929, he continued his graduate studies at King's College London
under Owen Willans Richardson
, where he worked with long-wavelength X-ray
s. In 1930, he became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University
, with which he would be associated for the rest of his life, and later that year he received his doctor of science
degree from Kyoto Imperial University.
When he arrived at Hokkaido University, the physics department had a minimum of equipment and few research funds. But there was an unlimited supply of natural snow, so Nakaya began his research into snow crystals. From over 3,000 photomicrographs he established a general classification of natural snow crystals.
In 1935, he opened the Low Temperature Science Laboratory, and on March 12, 1936, created the first artificial snow crystal.
From 1936 until 1938, Nakaya and his family lived at a hot springs resort on the Izu Peninsula
while he recuperated from a bout of clonorchiasis
. After his recovery, he began his studies of frost heaving
which eventually led to the founding of the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics at Hokkaido University in 1946. In 1941, he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy
for his contributions to snow crystal research.
In 1943, two years after the Pacific War
began, Nakaya moved to a newly built atmospheric icing
observatory at Mt. Niseko-Annupuri, a 1,308 meter (4,290 ft) mountain in Hokkaido. A Zero
fighter plane was brought to the observatory in the hope of finding ways to prevent atmospheric icing
. The following year, Nakaya moved to the Nemuro
coast
to study artificial dissipation
of fog
. After the war, he continued his research for the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics into flood
and snowmelt
in drainage basin
s.
Nakaya always enjoyed field work as well as laboratory research. His studies took him to locations ranging from the top of Mauna Loa
, Hawaii
to the ice island T-3 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
. In 1949, on the invitation of the International Glaciological Society
(an organization in which he later served as co-chairman), Nakaya toured the United States and Canada and attended the meeting establishing SIPRE (Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment).
From 1952 until 1954, he was a research fellow at SIPRE. During this time, he lived in Winnetka, Illinois
and studied Tyndall figures – melt figures that develop inside large crystals of glacial ice after exposure to bright sunlight, which were first described by the British physicist John Tyndall
.
In 1954, Harvard University Press published his Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial, a beautifully illustrated work that summarized his research on snowflake crystals, starting from his work at Hokkaido University. Though long out of print, it still serves as a classic reference on crystal shapes, showing how a scientific investigation can proceed through systematic observation toward an accurate description of a fascinating natural phenomenon.
In 1957 he visited Greenland
as a member of the United States expedition for the International Geophysical Year
. He visited Greenland several more times, usually staying for a month or two at a time, to observe the glaciological
ice cap
at the latitude 78°
observatory site.
In 1960, Nakaya underwent surgery for prostate cancer
at the hospital at the University of Tokyo. He died on April 11, 1962, of osteomyelitis
. In recognition of his achievements, he was posthumously decorated with one of the highest order
s awarded by the Japanese government.
In 1960, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
named a group of Antarctic
islands the "Nakaya Islands" in recognition of his contributions to science.
The asteroid
10152 Ukichiro
is also named after him.
s of snow crystals, classifying them into seven major and numerous minor types. In the course of these observations, taking photographs of natural snow and sorting them by appearance according to weather conditions, Nakaya felt the need to make artificial snow from ice crystals grown in the laboratory. He generated water vapor
in a dual-layer hollow glass tube, which was then cooled. Contrary to his initial expectations, creating snow crystals was not an easy task – instead of forming into snowflakes, the ice crystals grew like caterpillars on the cotton string he used for nucleation
.
The Low Temperature Science Laboratory opened in 1935, and experiments continued with various materials for the ice nucleus
. These experiments revealed that woolen string is better than cotton string; however, the snow crystals were still not forming as intended. One day Nakaya found a snow crystal on the tip of a hair of a rabbit-fur coat in the lab. This was the breakthrough that led to the production of the first artificial snow crystal. On March 12, 1936, three years after the first attempt, he produced a snow crystal on the tip of a single hair of rabbit fur in his laboratory apparatus.
In December 1937, he took photographs of many types of artificial snow crystals in his lab. These photographs were influenced by Wilson Bentley
's 1931 book Snow Crystals, which he admired greatly.
Nakaya continued his research into snow crystals and elucidated how their various patterns are produced in nature. He published his Nakaya Diagram, which describes the relationships among vapor
, temperature
, supersaturation
, and excess vapor density in clouds.
to archaeology
and the scientific method
.
He also produced a number of documentary films and radio programs. In 1950, he played a central role in the founding of Iwanami Productions, which went on to produce more than 4,000 documentary and educational films. (The films are now available from Hitachi Media Productions in digital form as the Iwanami Film Library.)
His most famous quote is probably "Snowflakes are letters sent from heaven." He returned to this idea several times, first in his 1939 documentary film Snow Crystals, and again in a handwritten note in a copy of his 1954 book Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial.
while Nakaya was studying at King's College. He remarried in 1932. His daughter Fujiko Nakaya
, born in 1933, is an artist known for her fog sculptures. He had two other daughters, Sakiko and Miyoko Nakaya.
In his later life, Nakaya was an accomplished sumi-e artist.
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
essayist known for his work in glaciology
Glaciology
Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...
and low-temperature sciences. He is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes.
Life and research
Onsen
An is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth...
in Kaga
Kaga, Ishikawa
is a city located in the southwest of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.Created as an old temple town, the city was greatly developed by the Maeda clan in the early Edo period...
, Ishikawa Prefecture
Ishikawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. The capital is Kanazawa.- History :Ishikawa was formed from the merger of Kaga Province and the smaller Noto Province.- Geography :Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast...
, near the area depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu
Hokuetsu Seppu
Hokuetsu Seppu is a late Edo-period encyclopedic work of human geography describing life in the Uonuma area of Japan's old Echigo Province, a place known for its long winters and deep snow.First published in Edo in 1837,...
, an encyclopedic work published in 1837 that contains 183 sketches of natural snowflake crystals – the subject that became Nakaya's life work.
Nakaya later wrote that his father wanted him to be a potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
and sent him to live with a potter while he was in primary school. His father died after he finished primary school, but
Nakaya's first scientific paper, written in 1924 for the inaugural issue of the proceedings of the Physics Department of Tokyo Imperial University, was devoted to Japanese Kutani porcelain
Kutani ware
is a style of Japanese porcelain Gotō Saijirō, a member of the Maeda clan, set up a kiln in the village of Kutani on the order of Maeda Toshiharu, ruler of the Kaga domain...
.
Nakaya was inspired to study physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in high school by the nebular hypotheses of Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
and Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...
and by the works of Hajime Tanabe
Hajime Tanabe
was a Japanese philosopher of the Kyoto School. In 1947 he became a member of The Japan Academy, in 1950 he received the Order of Cultural Merit, and in 1957 an honorary doctorate from University of Freiburg....
.
He major
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....
ed in experimental physics
Experimental physics
Within the field of physics, experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines concerned with the observation of physical phenomena in order to gather data about the universe...
under Torahiko Terada at Tokyo Imperial University and graduated in 1925. Soon thereafter, he became Terada's research assistant at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN
RIKEN
is a large natural sciences research institute in Japan. Founded in 1917, it now has approximately 3000 scientists on seven campuses across Japan, the main one in Wako, just outside Tokyo...
). Nakaya studied electrostatic discharge as an assistant professor at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1928 and 1929, he continued his graduate studies at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
under Owen Willans Richardson
Owen Willans Richardson
Sir Owen Willans Richardson, FRS was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928 for his work on thermionic emission, which led to Richardson's Law.-Biography:...
, where he worked with long-wavelength X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s. In 1930, he became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University
Hokkaido University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:...
, with which he would be associated for the rest of his life, and later that year he received his doctor of science
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
degree from Kyoto Imperial University.
When he arrived at Hokkaido University, the physics department had a minimum of equipment and few research funds. But there was an unlimited supply of natural snow, so Nakaya began his research into snow crystals. From over 3,000 photomicrographs he established a general classification of natural snow crystals.
In 1935, he opened the Low Temperature Science Laboratory, and on March 12, 1936, created the first artificial snow crystal.
From 1936 until 1938, Nakaya and his family lived at a hot springs resort on the Izu Peninsula
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshū, Japan. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture...
while he recuperated from a bout of clonorchiasis
Clonorchis sinensis
Clonorchis sinensis, the Chinese liver fluke, is a human liver fluke in the class Trematoda, Phylum Platyhelminthes. This parasite lives in the liver of humans, and is found mainly in the common bile duct and gall bladder, feeding on bile...
. After his recovery, he began his studies of frost heaving
Frost heaving
Frost heaving results from ice forming beneath the surface of soil during freezing conditions in the atmosphere. The ice grows in the direction of heat loss , starting at the freezing front or boundary in the soil...
which eventually led to the founding of the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics at Hokkaido University in 1946. In 1941, he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy
Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy
The was a prestigious honor conferred by the Imperial Academy from 1911 through 1945. The award was presented to non-members in recognition of their academic theses, books, and achievements....
for his contributions to snow crystal research.
In 1943, two years after the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
began, Nakaya moved to a newly built atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing occurs when water droplets in the atmosphere freeze on objects they contact. This can be extremely dangerous to aircraft, as the built-up ice changes the aerodynamics of the flight surfaces, which can increase the risk of a subsequent stalling of the airfoil...
observatory at Mt. Niseko-Annupuri, a 1,308 meter (4,290 ft) mountain in Hokkaido. A Zero
A6M Zero
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long-range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the , and also designated as the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen and Mitsubishi Navy 12-shi Carrier Fighter. The A6M was usually referred to by the...
fighter plane was brought to the observatory in the hope of finding ways to prevent atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing occurs when water droplets in the atmosphere freeze on objects they contact. This can be extremely dangerous to aircraft, as the built-up ice changes the aerodynamics of the flight surfaces, which can increase the risk of a subsequent stalling of the airfoil...
. The following year, Nakaya moved to the Nemuro
Nemuro Subprefecture
is a subprefecture of Hokkaidō, Japan. The Japanese claim the disputed Southern Kurile Islands as part of this subprefecture....
coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
to study artificial dissipation
Dissipation
In physics, dissipation embodies the concept of a dynamical system where important mechanical models, such as waves or oscillations, lose energy over time, typically from friction or turbulence. The lost energy converts into heat, which raises the temperature of the system. Such systems are called...
of fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
. After the war, he continued his research for the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics into flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
and snowmelt
Snowmelt
In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced. Water produced by snowmelt is an important part of the annual water cycle in many parts of the world, in some cases contributing high...
in drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
s.
Nakaya always enjoyed field work as well as laboratory research. His studies took him to locations ranging from the top of Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, and the largest on Earth in terms of volume and area covered. It is an active shield volcano, with a volume estimated at approximately , although its peak is about lower than that...
, Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
to the ice island T-3 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, is a Canadian archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
. In 1949, on the invitation of the International Glaciological Society
International Glaciological Society
The International Glaciological Society was founded in 1936 to provide a focus for individuals interested in glaciology, practical and scientific aspects of snow and ice. It was originally known as the 'Association for the Study of Snow and Ice'. The name was changed to the 'British Glaciological...
(an organization in which he later served as co-chairman), Nakaya toured the United States and Canada and attended the meeting establishing SIPRE (Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment).
From 1952 until 1954, he was a research fellow at SIPRE. During this time, he lived in Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...
and studied Tyndall figures – melt figures that develop inside large crystals of glacial ice after exposure to bright sunlight, which were first described by the British physicist John Tyndall
John Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
.
In 1954, Harvard University Press published his Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial, a beautifully illustrated work that summarized his research on snowflake crystals, starting from his work at Hokkaido University. Though long out of print, it still serves as a classic reference on crystal shapes, showing how a scientific investigation can proceed through systematic observation toward an accurate description of a fascinating natural phenomenon.
In 1957 he visited Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
as a member of the United States expedition for the International Geophysical Year
International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West was seriously interrupted...
. He visited Greenland several more times, usually staying for a month or two at a time, to observe the glaciological
Glaciology
Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...
ice cap
Ice cap
An ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area . Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet....
at the latitude 78°
78th parallel north
The 78th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 78 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia, the Arctic Ocean and North America....
observatory site.
In 1960, Nakaya underwent surgery for prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
at the hospital at the University of Tokyo. He died on April 11, 1962, of osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis simply means an infection of the bone or bone marrow...
. In recognition of his achievements, he was posthumously decorated with one of the highest order
Order (decoration)
An order or order of merit is a visible honour, awarded by a government, dynastic house or international organization to an individual, usually in recognition of distinguished service to a nation or to humanity. The distinction between orders and decorations is somewhat vague, except that most...
s awarded by the Japanese government.
In 1960, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee
The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory and the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
named a group of Antarctic
Antarctic
The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...
islands the "Nakaya Islands" in recognition of his contributions to science.
The asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
10152 Ukichiro
10152 Ukichiro
10152 Ukichiro is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 11, 1994 by S. Otomo at Kiyosato, Yamanashi Prefecture. It is named after the Japanese physicist and low-temperature scientist Ukichiro Nakaya.- External links :*...
is also named after him.
Snow crystals
From 1933, Nakaya observed natural snow and created 3,000 photographic platePhotographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
s of snow crystals, classifying them into seven major and numerous minor types. In the course of these observations, taking photographs of natural snow and sorting them by appearance according to weather conditions, Nakaya felt the need to make artificial snow from ice crystals grown in the laboratory. He generated water vapor
Water vapor
Water vapor or water vapour , also aqueous vapor, is the gas phase of water. It is one state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice. Under typical atmospheric conditions, water vapor is continuously...
in a dual-layer hollow glass tube, which was then cooled. Contrary to his initial expectations, creating snow crystals was not an easy task – instead of forming into snowflakes, the ice crystals grew like caterpillars on the cotton string he used for nucleation
Nucleation
Nucleation is the extremely localized budding of a distinct thermodynamic phase. Some examples of phases that may form by way of nucleation in liquids are gaseous bubbles, crystals or glassy regions. Creation of liquid droplets in saturated vapor is also characterized by nucleation...
.
The Low Temperature Science Laboratory opened in 1935, and experiments continued with various materials for the ice nucleus
Ice nucleus
An ice nucleus is a particle which acts as the nucleus for the formation of an ice crystal in the atmosphere.The presence of ice nuclei increase the temperature that ice will form in the atmosphere from around −42°C to about −10°C...
. These experiments revealed that woolen string is better than cotton string; however, the snow crystals were still not forming as intended. One day Nakaya found a snow crystal on the tip of a hair of a rabbit-fur coat in the lab. This was the breakthrough that led to the production of the first artificial snow crystal. On March 12, 1936, three years after the first attempt, he produced a snow crystal on the tip of a single hair of rabbit fur in his laboratory apparatus.
In December 1937, he took photographs of many types of artificial snow crystals in his lab. These photographs were influenced by Wilson Bentley
Wilson Bentley
Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley , born in Jericho, Vermont, United States is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimed.-Biography:Bentley was...
's 1931 book Snow Crystals, which he admired greatly.
Nakaya continued his research into snow crystals and elucidated how their various patterns are produced in nature. He published his Nakaya Diagram, which describes the relationships among vapor
Vapor
A vapor or vapour is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical point....
, temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
, supersaturation
Supersaturation
The term supersaturation refers to a solution that contains more of the dissolved material than could be dissolved by the solvent under normal circumstances...
, and excess vapor density in clouds.
Essays on science
Nakaya was also a prolific science essayist. A select bibliography at the website of the Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice lists more than 40 titles that explained science for the general public, on topics ranging from snow and geophysicsGeophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
to archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
.
He also produced a number of documentary films and radio programs. In 1950, he played a central role in the founding of Iwanami Productions, which went on to produce more than 4,000 documentary and educational films. (The films are now available from Hitachi Media Productions in digital form as the Iwanami Film Library.)
His most famous quote is probably "Snowflakes are letters sent from heaven." He returned to this idea several times, first in his 1939 documentary film Snow Crystals, and again in a handwritten note in a copy of his 1954 book Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial.
Personal life
Nakaya married twice. His first wife was the daughter of , a literary historian who taught at Tokyo Imperial University. She died in Japan of diphtheriaDiphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
while Nakaya was studying at King's College. He remarried in 1932. His daughter Fujiko Nakaya
Fujiko Nakaya
is a Japanese artist, most noted for her fog sculptures.-Early life:Nakaya was born in Sapporo in 1933, where her father Ukichiro Nakaya, who is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes, was at the time an assistant professor at Hokkaido University...
, born in 1933, is an artist known for her fog sculptures. He had two other daughters, Sakiko and Miyoko Nakaya.
In his later life, Nakaya was an accomplished sumi-e artist.
External links
- The Japanese Society of Snow and Ice, originally founded in 1939 by Nakaya et al.
- Japan - The Snow Crystal Tour -- by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, January, 2002
- Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido UniversityHokkaido UniversityHokkaido University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:...
- Nakaya Ukichiro museum of snow and ice