7 Tiny Wonders of the World

A snowflake can take as long as two hours to fall from a cloud to the ground.

The sound of waves crashing comes mostly from air bubbles. Each exploding bubble has its own signature note.

Peacock feathers and butterfly wings get their shimmer from rows and rows of tiny, precisely aligned crystals.

Spider silk is one of the toughest substances around. By weight, it’s five times stronger than steel and much more flexible.

Every year, 40,000 tons of cosmic dust rain down onto our planet, mostly as microscopic debris. Everything we are and everything on Earth originated from stardust.

With wings that flutter as fast as 80 times each second, hummingbirds are able to fly forward, backward, sideways, and even upside down.

Gleaming blue tides and incandescent waters aren’t a trick of photography. They’re the work of billions of tiny, glowing organisms called dinoflagellates.