Country Life
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Martin Fone investigates the scientists so intrigued by cloud formations that they decided to sort them out into different types.
As a child, I was fascinated by cloud formations and often spent my time gazing into the far distance, imagining that I could see the shape of an animal or a face in one of the clouds.
In later life, I regarded the habit as a harmless form of pareidolia, perhaps even a sign of some latent streak of creativity within me, as some neuroscientists seem to think.
I was gratified to find that I shared this quirk with Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark, who asks Polonius ‘do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?’ (Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2). Almost immediately he changes his mind, seeing at first a weasel, then a whale.