25/04/2007 15:00  - (SA)  
Superman beware...

London - A new mineral has been discovered in Serbia with the same composition as kryptonite - the fictional substance that robs Superman of his powers - the British Museum said on Tuesday.

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February 12, 2004
Roaming the Rust Belt
By Astrobiology Magazine staffwriter

Pasadena, Opportunity mission Sol 9
For the Mars' site selection team, the Opportunity site at Meridiani was interesting because of its hematite. The site is sometimes referred to as 'the prime'. Hematite is a rust-like iron-oxide, that gives parts of Mars their blood-red color. No one knows precisely why these rust-belts on Mars are hematite-rich but the mineral's existence in high concentration is part of the ongoing martian water mystery. At least for the Opportunity rover, the mission theme is not just to 'follow the water', but also to follow the iron-oxides.

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January 27, 2004
Wood Is Petrified but Not Scared

By Kathy Wollard
Kathy Wollard is a regular contributor to Newsday.

How does wood become petrified? asks Robert Pigott, a student in Sayville.

In a scary movie, when a character seems rooted in place with fear - even when he should be turning and running the other way, as fast as he can - it's because he's petrified. To be petrified with fear is to be frozen like a statue.

Likewise, petrified wood is wood that has literally turned to stone.

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February 9, 2004
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
ROOMY CRYSTALS
Design strategy yields porous crystals with record-breaking surface area

MITCH JACOBY

From catalysis and surface chemistry to gas storage and separation, materials with high porosity and surface area play key roles in industrial processes. Because of the importance of those properties to materials performance, researchers have developed techniques for preparing materials with very large surface areas and controlled pore dimensions. Yet no method has been established for determining the upper limit to a material's surface area.

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Tucson Citizen
February 7, 2004
Hot rocks, cool crystals and dinosaur eggs

City's annual gem show treasure hunter's delight

ERIC SAGARA

The fossilized bones of a wooly rhino attracts the attention of 5-year-old Amber Miller. Her mother declined to buy the $100,000 fossil for the girl.
From the smallest ammonite to the largest amethyst geode, treasure hunting in Tucson is at its finest during the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase.

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FEB 13, 2004
Probe now on rock minerals

PASADENA - Nuzzling up to the first outcrop of bedrock ever examined on Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's rover Opportunity took more than 100 photographs over the weekend and gathered readings on the minerals in the rock, mission managers said.

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Boffins' Dr Who crystals

SCIENTISTS have created crystals that look small on the outside but have a massive internal capacity — just like Dr Who’s Tardis.

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February 2, 2004
'CONNECT INTO A PARALLEL REALITY': Energized by crystals

Rocks give power, say believers

BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen

MaZebah Taahn, peering past a crystal ball while managing Aumakah Crystal Gallery on Broadway, reveals that "Each crystal contains an incredible amount of information" and can teach about the universe.
The spirit in Tucson doesn't just move - it rocks.
The many-faceted Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase has a cosmic meaning for some.

The show itself is a spiritual experience, said Eddie Hill, a teacher and rock lover from Seattle.

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January 29, 2004
At JX Crystals, they're peering into the future of energy

By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

ISSAQUAH -- Lewis Fraas did not know where to start.

The story he was about to tell was weighed down by the jargon of science. And would he have to explain that the Periodic Table is not where you feed the cousins on occasional family get-togethers, but where chemists catalog nature's elements by counting the protons in their nuclei.

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February 1, 2004
Rutgers Geology Museum displays power of crystals

By LISA VERNON-SPARKS
Gannett New Jersey

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Jordan Kovar studied the tabletop array of jagged minerals, colored gems and smooth-as-glass rocks. He listened with great fascination as Paula Landau explained crystals and their possible powers.

Landau, a contributor at Saturday's 36th annual Rutgers Geology Museum Open House, said that while she's not sure she believes, as others do, that crystals have mystical powers, she admits that crystals are used to give power to watches, among other electronic devices.

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