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CCTV camera reveals: Zeyou Technology allows humans to see the 'childhood' of snowflakes clearly
Date: 2025-07-31Read: 0
Have you ever been curious why falling snowflakes always have delicate hexagonal patterns? Why can athletes glide freely on the ice surface, even though it is a hard solid? In the CCTV documentary "Beauty of Science", these mysteries hidden in ice and snow are revealed one by one by a "microscopic artifact" - it is Zeyou Technology's in-situ frozen sample rod.
Capture at minus 170 ℃: The First Moment of Snowflake Birth
In the documentary, scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences made a bold experiment: in a low temperature environment of minus 170 ℃, let gaseous water instantly condense into ice crystals. This process is as fast as lightning, and even a slight deviation can miss the crucial moment when snowflakes form.
At this point, Zeyou Technology's in-situ frozen sample rod became a "divine assist". It is like a precise 'micro temperature control chamber', firmly supporting the sample substrate, allowing scanning electron microscopy to capture images that humans have never seen before: when snowflakes are just born, they are actually a 'mixed wind' - cubic ice and hexagonal ice coexist!
What's even more surprising is that Snowflake's "childhood" also has a "deformation record": initially it was an amorphous ice crystal, slowly growing into a pure phase single crystal cube, and finally gradually stretching into our familiar hexagonal shape. This is the first time that humans have seen the "true appearance" of snowflakes in their early stages of formation, and behind this scene recorded by CCTV is the hardcore support of in-situ freezing technology.
The 'magic' of minus 153 ℃: why is the ice so slippery?
The smoothness of the ice surface also hides the secrets of the microscopic world. When scientists turned their attention to the ice surface, Zeyou Technology's in-situ frozen sample rod once again demonstrated its strength - it can maintain a stable ultra-low temperature state in environments as low as minus 153 ℃, allowing electron microscopes to clearly observe changes at the molecular level.
It was found that the "sliding" of the ice surface actually stems from a "pre melting" phenomenon: even at minus 153 ℃, the surface of the ice has begun to quietly "melt". Firstly, the surface superstructure becomes disordered, gradually forming an extremely thin liquid water film. This invisible water film is like applying a layer of "lubricating oil" to the ice surface, making it smooth and comfortable to move on the ice.
This discovery changed our understanding: the smoothness of ice is not due to the ice itself being "soft", but because there is already a layer of "invisible water film" hidden on the surface.
More than just 'beauty': How does technology connect micro and macro?
The key reason why Zeyou Technology's in-situ frozen sample rod can undertake this task is that it solves two core problems: stable maintenance of ultra-low temperature environment and precise capture of rapid processes. Whether it's the millisecond level changes in snowflake formation or the subtle melting of ice at extremely low temperatures, it can act like a 'micro director', directing the electron microscope lens towards the most critical moments.
And these discoveries are far more than just satisfying curiosity. Understanding the formation mechanism of snowflakes can help us predict precipitation more accurately; Cracking the secret of "pre melting" on ice surfaces may provide new ideas for the development of new lubricants and anti icing materials.
From the hexagonal mystery of snowflakes to the mystery of ice sliding, 'The Beauty of Science' uses the lens to tell us that there is a key to interpreting macroscopic phenomena hidden in the microscopic world. And Zeyou Technology's in-situ freezing technology is like a precise "keychain", allowing scientists to firmly grasp this key and uncover the codes hidden in ice and snow for billions of years. The next time you see snowflakes falling, you may remember: in the microscopic world of minus 170 ℃, there is a group of Chinese scientists and their "artifacts" working hard for us to understand the beauty of nature.