Minerals are geologic time capsules of the environments in which they form. With the right approach, their mysteries can be cracked open to reveal key features of the ancient Earth or other planets.

18th Century Swedish physician, botanist and zoologist Carl von Linné or Carl Linnaeus is today famous as father of modern biology, having introduced the binomial nomenclature wherein every organism ...

A system of categorization that reflects not just a mineral's chemistry and crystalline structure, but also the physical, chemical, or biological processes by which it formed, would be capable of ...

Minerals are physical objects, rooted in time and formed through complex planetary processes. So why don’t scientists classify them that way? A philosopher and two Earth scientists recently asked that ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Bressan is a geologist who covers curiosities about Earth. A 15-year study led by the Carnegie Institution for Science ...

Water helped 80+% of mineral species to form; Biology had a direct or indirect role in ~50%; One-third formed exclusively through biological processes Pyrite (“Fool’s Gold”) formed in 21 ways -- the ...

A 15-year study details the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth, a landmark body of work that will help reconstruct the history of life on Earth, guide the search for new minerals ...

Washington, DC--The first minerals to form in the universe were nanocrystalline diamonds, which condensed from gases ejected when the first generation of stars exploded. Diamonds that crystallize ...