There's something mesmerizing about the way rivers look from the air--the way they ebb and flow and respond to the topography of the land they flow over. Sometimes, the water flows in a great sheet, like a fan; other times, it flows in a tree-like structure called a dendrite.

Well, it turns out that salt can form similar structures when it crystallizes, but only under very specific conditions. It's an amazing and quite beautiful thing--have a listen.

Program notes are here: https://stevenshepardcom.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/episode-212-dendrites.pdf.