Holiday snowflake stamps

The Associated Press is reporting that the snowflakes on the new holiday stamps are photos taken by Kenneth Libbrecht, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology.

AP reporter Randolph E. Schmid writes that Libbrecht photographed them in Michigan, Alaska and Ontario, Canada using a high-resolution digital camera attached to a specially designed microscope. Taken outdoors in subfreezing temperatures, the camera had to be placed in a heated box to keep it working.

The Holiday Snowflakes stamps will available in New York City post offices Oct. 5, and nationwide Oct. 6.

To read the entire article, click here.

To visit Libbrecht's snowflake Web site, click here.