> Named davemaoite after prominent geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, the mineral is the first example of a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) found on Earth.
Hey, no shame! A friend gave me a natural halite (salt) crystal that has beautiful purple coloration from natural radiation. Not radioactive, but purple mainly due to displaced electrons that formed color centers. It had great sharply defined edges and faces. For awhile.
When visitors remarked on the specimen, my wife often explained that it was a natural salt crystal. Nobody could resist licking it just to be sure.
Still got a beautiful color, but it's got about the same feature definition as a gummy bear...
The first pyramid salt crystal that grew from this solution was an absolute beast. The humongous head was covered with all sorts of intricate formations that reminded me of bismuth crystals."
That's a very interesting observation!
I'm wondering in all of Chemistry -- are there other possible crystal formations that look like Bismuth or specific Bismuth-looking pyramid salt crystals?
Also, could we take molten Bismuth -- and somehow grow a pyramid shaped crystal out of it? If so how? If not, why not?
idk, crystallography is pretty neat. Maybe there's something to it after all, even silicon chips are always built from single crystals. That has got to count as a key discovery.
> Named davemaoite after prominent geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, the mineral is the first example of a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) found on Earth.
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