Background A friend introduced me to ChatGPT (she had named it “Doug”) while experimenting with trying to generate a picture of another friend. The program struggled to get her Indian-descent skin tone, providing images of every other skin tone instead. While I was aware of artificial intelligence, I hadn’t heard of this specific program until […]
I’ve been working on trying to understand how the different types of silicon dioxide (SiO2) are named.
This is a presentation I gave to the Ozark Mountain Gem & Mineral Society on 25 April 2022. Please click on the images to view copyright information. 10 Most Deadly Minerals There are dozens of “# (pick a number) Most (insert favorite doom and gloom word here) Mineral” lists available on the internet. Nearly all […]
Before explaining how opal’s play-of-color works, I’ll need to review a few definitions you may not have encountered since school. Definitions Visible Light Visible light is electromagnetic radiation that the human eye can see. It forms as a wave with wavelengths between approximately 380-740 nanometers (nm). White Light White light is a combination of light […]
Rose Quartz There are three types of pink-colored quartz. The first and most common is rose quartz. Rose quartz forms in a translucent mass without crystal faces. It is always hazy due to microscopic fibrous inclusions of dididumortierite, a pink borosilicate mineral related to dumortierite. These inclusions inhibit crystal development and when intersected at a […]
I gave a pared-down version of this presentation on the Petoskey Stone, Michigan’s state stone, to the Ozark Mountain Gem & Mineral Society on 28 Feb 2022. While researching it, I found that much of the information on the internet (and sometimes books and magazines) is incorrect, so I spent about four months working through […]