Minerals have always been essential to life on Earth, but they have taken on greater meaning and value to humans throughout the ages. From creating the first sparks of a manmade fire and cave painting, to making a call on a cell phone or telling the time on your watch, minerals have shaped our culture. In this episode, Laura and Katy discuss what minerals are and what makes gems so special.
Minerals have always been essential to life on Earth, but they have taken on greater meaning and value to humans throughout the ages. From creating the first sparks of a manmade fire and cave painting, to making a call on a cell phone or telling the time on your watch, minerals have shaped our culture. In this episode, Laura and Katy discuss what minerals are and what makes gems so special.
Hello and welcome to For The Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.
Katy:And I'm Katie. And today we're gonna be talking about gems and minerals. This is going to be one of our learning episodes, and so we're gonna be talking about minerals and how they are essential for life, but gems. Not so much, um, at all. It's more just like a, a shiny object that humans really
Laura:like to have. That's, yeah, that's something that we've always been really drawn to with. Shiny things and we put value on them.
Katy:We're just, you know, way too much sometimes.
Laura:Speaking of, I actually just found out from a scientific article at work that like the whole crows loving, shiny thing isn't necessarily true. It's kind of like a learned, maybe behavior like they learned. Like they know that people value it. So that Oh.
Katy:Oh my gosh. That's terrifying though. Terrifying.
Laura:That's true. I don't know. I don't know. I'd have to redo more reading. They definitely like, oh my gosh. Adult curls don't hoard things. Baby crows do hoard things, which makes sense. Typically, it doesn't have anything to do with being shiny, it's just things they find interesting.
Katy:Okay, so we have this, so in that, so we're
Laura:like Bower birds. Yeah, not
Katy:gross. Gosh. But at the same time, okay, so we have this going on. We have that guy who is being interviewed on TV saying that we have. Ev. Like that government has proof of aliens, like actual alien, and we have AI happening. There's just way too much. I think we're at the cusp of like insanity of just like we
Laura:figured out that humans have currency. Yeah. Aliens. Oh my God.
Katy:It's just, this is what we all tip and we're either gonna go full blown like Terminator or like apocalypse right now. Like I, there's no in between. I see. Well,
Laura:speaking of, you know how like we bring up, well, I don't, you bring up all the time. B BT Dubs, they said that there were aliens during the pandemic, but I just saw, somebody just sent me a video of that on TikTok where somebody was like, you know, like, I know we were dealing with a lot of stuff. Yeah, but like, nobody cares.
Katy:Dude. I even have that on my dating profile that I was like, we gotta circle back round to this. Like we, we need to revisit this. And we are, but like, nobody's
Laura:making burned out. We were too burned out there. Every Yeah,
Katy:everybody was so like emotionally, mentally burned out that, that like, everybody was like the, all of the. The world's governments was like, yep, yep, aliens. And nobody cared.
Laura:Blinked an eye. No. Right. And so now,
Katy:now I feel like people are bringing it up again. And because we were so numb to it, then people were just write these guys off as, you know, lunatics. Oh, they're just crazy. Whatever. Or everyone's just like, mm-hmm. Yeah. Like, tell me something worse here. Like, are they gonna, are they gonna take us out? No, I don't think so. I can deal with it. Don't care. Yeah, don't, don't care. We've really gotta circle back around to that guys and I, I don't know. I don't know what, I saw that interview with that dude and then I don't think I heard, I haven't seen anything about him again since then, so.
Laura:Interesting.
Katy:Goodness. Millions. All righty. So other than like aliens maybe, or maybe not attacking and invading earth I don't have any other nature news. Nah, I think that's enough. Yeah, that's enough. That's enough. We're all gonna die, like we're good. All right. Let's gems and minerals then. Or I should say minerals and gems because you gotta, you have to kick this off because I'm in the groundwork. Yeah, cuz there's yours is all important and everything. And life needs it and mine not at all. Well, it's
Laura:just like a, a matter of like this, this is almost, it's not a taxon, it's not a taxonomy episode, but it is along the lines of like, it's a learning one. I'm the broader category here. Yeah. And Katie is a subset, like gems are minerals. Yep. Just
Katy:the shiny kind.
Laura:Yeah. So here's the, so actually I learned a ton. I'm really interested kind of in geology and I was like, Ooh, as I'm reading a lot of this stuff, so. We have been mining minerals. Katie, how long do you think that human beings have been mining for minerals?
Katy:Like actually mining or just like digging? Finding, I guess digging. Digging for them. I mean, I would say like it's gotta be not too long after, I mean like, like humans, like not Neanderthals, but it's gotta be like around humans times like, From the get-go. From the
Laura:get-go 42,000 years to be precise. Okay. Which is bananas.
Katy:Yeah. Um, but I mean,
Laura:it makes sense. Yeah, they found the earliest evidence of it in South Africa in a mine. And they were digging up red pigments probably for painting and communication. Oh, okay.
Katy:I figured someone licked a rock and they were
Laura:like, oh
Katy:yeah, that's what I figured. I was totally off. They're like, art and everything red. And I'm like, Hmm. Someone licked a rock.
Laura:ADHD came Right,
Katy:right. I said, d, adhd, I would've survived so well
Laura:back in the day. I, that we figured out what salt was because we saw animals licking it. So I, I bet that we licked it then too.
Katy:I, I guarantee it animals, so I'm sure, no offense, but
Laura:it, it had and eggs or like anything like that. Surely we watched another animal do it
Katy:first. But again, no offense to men, but I guarantee you it was a dude who first licked salt. Like they saw an animal and then they're like, eh, let me go. Lemme go lick at two. Maybe
Laura:someone's think about this.
Katy:Yeah. Had to been a dude. No woman would be like, mm. An animal's licking that. No. You know, no, no woman's gonna go do that. How to open a dude.
Laura:So we've been minerals. They've been around since the very beginning because they are the basic geological building blocks of solid earth. So we've done an episode in the past called Rocks Rock, where we kind of broke down like geology and rock types. This is even broader because rocks are just made up of minerals. They're like, if you think about a rock as like a cake recipe, the minerals are all the different ingredients that go into the rock. And then gems and metals are subsets of minerals. Mm-hmm. So like minerals and then subset gems, subset metals. And then there's like a couple of other rando ones. So what are they besides building blocks, the technical definition has to have a couple of things that are important about it. They are inorganic solids that have a characteristic chemical composition and a specific crystal structure. Okay, so first of all, they have to be a solid substance single throughout. It doesn't have to be pure, but it's gotta be pretty much the same thing throughout. So because of this definition, technically ice is a mineral, not, oh,
Katy:I've heard this. Yeah, I've heard this before. But solid
Laura:ice, it's not ice, technically a mineral. Oh. It's made from molecules or ene elements that are arranged in chains, sheets, or three dimensional structures. So that's what we mean by like a crystal structure. They're arranged in a certain way. So crystals. Are just ordered. An ordered internal arrangement, not necessarily flat faces, like I'm not necessarily talking about the crystals that you might be thinking of, which are like beautiful pointy. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's just not like a wizard's crystal, uh, but. Just something that has some kind of structure inside. We're really showing
Katy:our true sides in this episode.
Laura:I'm just gonna bring up fantasy. You wanna bring up aliens
Katy:all day, every day.
Laura:Morphologically, which means externally, so like they're external shape. Crystals can actually be grouped into 32 classes, which is geez, overwhelming. Yeah. Uh, that represent the 32 possible symmetry elements and their combinations. Okay. So this all has to do with if you study like mineral, mineral neurology, and that's a hardest word to say. Mineralogy, mine, neurology. How can I say
Katy:that word? And I can't say not the Latin. Yeah, nothing.
Laura:I can't say anything after the time. Neurology. And then like specifically like crystalline structures and things. So 32 classes and then lumped into six systems. So. Such as hexagonal, tet, trigonal, yada, yada, yada. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you had looking at a chart of crystals, they would be like, split into these six giant categories and, and then 32 smaller ones. But of course that's not the only way to, to kind of figure out minerals. It's just, of course it's not, of course it's not. Can't be simple, you know. Um, so that's, science is never simple. That's just the external shape. That's what it looks like to the naked eye. And it reflects the internal crystal structure. So the crystals, the crystal structure of the elements inside is giving rise to what it looks like on the outside to be complicated, some minerals have more than one form, so they're called polymorphic. An, an example of this is carbon which can be both graphite and diamonds, depending on temperature and pressure. And so the reason why they're different is because they have different crystal structures. Gotcha. So it's same thing, same mineral, but different forms depending on some factors, not, they're not all like that, but some and minerals can be expressed as a chemical formula. So boy, if you think back to your chemist three days, no, I don't, I don't want to. I know, right. Anything back to your chemistry days. You know, things can be represented by chemical formulas based on what's inside of it. Yes. So it could just be some, some minerals are just elements. Sulfur is a mineral and just a plain old element. It's in its purest form. Just su sulfur, s for sulfur. Other ones though are compounds like s i o two, which is like for silicone and oxygen. That's quartz. So, but because, you know, not all minerals are pure. Most have a range of chemical compositions when like ions move around and getting into way too complicated stuff to talk about on here if you're interested. There. It's,
Katy:Google it.
Laura:Google it. There are more than 5,000 types of minerals on earth. Ugh. And typically they're very small because they form within a confined area, like a teeny tiny space within a rock. And they form from natural processes. That's the rule, okay. To be, to consider technically a mineral. Although we can now make minerals like we ha we do make them. They're natural. But you know, my original definition, you might have heard me say inorganic solids, typically they're inorganic. But we also kind of consider like pearls a mineral. Oh, okay. But they are made from an organic, but
Katy:technically Yeah. Substance.
Laura:Yeah. That's secreted by those oysters. Okay. So that's what a mineral is. What makes them form in the first place depends on the geologic conditions. What kind of rock is around? What is the chemical composition of the magma? What kind of pressure is going on? How hot is it? And is there a lot of fluid around, which is a gross thing to say, but that's what minerals need.
Katy:Minerals. Just need all those fluids.
Laura:And this is a direct throwback to our Rocks rock episode because we talked about that there are three different types of rock, okay? Mm-hmm. There are also main, the main categories of mineral formation are very similar to those. There's igneous, which is ones that crystallize from a lava milk. Mm-hmm. Sedimentary. They are, these are minerals that result from the sedimentation of other rocks. So as the rocks break down, they're forming metamorphic, which is minerals that form at the expense of older ones when temperatures and pressures change. And then the last one that is not a type of rock is hydrothermal. So they are chemically precipitated, meaning that they, like How do we explain this to the layperson? Uh,
Katy:I don't remember what we did cause I remember we broke it downs
Laura:like precipitation. Think about like rain, that's precipitation. So like the minerals come out of these hydrothermal vents, uh, and other hot solutions within the earth. So minerals do have, in that definition, we said that they had certain chemical and physical properties. Most crystals don't appear alone. Like it's super rare to just see like this. Perfect crystal in one single shard, usually they form in like a clump called aggregates. Mm-hmm. And then you can then kind of lump different crystals based on a descriptive term. Like are they granular aggregates? Are they globular aggregates? Yeah. Are they like that kind of stuff. Also geology, and maybe you'll go into this with gems, I don't know, but to identify certain types of rocks, minerals, and gems there are. Physical properties you're testing for, you're looking at the hardness, like how resistant is it scratching, it's cleavage your face? Um, no, but it, that's how cleanly it splits. And in what direction? It's luster, which is how it appears and reflected light. It's color, it's tenacity, which is such a funny word. Yeah, that's such a funny word. Non-living. That just means those flexible, are malleable. The tenacity
Katy:that
Laura:it has, the tenacity of that mineral. It's specific grad gravity, magnetism, fluorescence. Like does it emit light under uv? How soluble is it in hydrochloric acid? Geez, radioactivity, feasibility, electrical and thermal conductivity. I feel like I'm not doing a wrap.
Katy:It's Can you please turn it under
Laura:a wrap? Radioactivity, feasibility. And all, all of these physical properties are based on the forces that are holding the atoms together within that crystal, so like, All minerals have different things about, some are harder than others, some are more, some have different cleavages. Which is, I just
Katy:wanna hear you wrap. We're just, I'm just stuck on that now.
Laura:Okay. Just a few more things. So, classifications of minerals. Okay. We could classify them based on crystal structure. Cool. We could classify them based on their, um, like aggregate. Stuff and their other physical properties. But since the 18 hundreds, they have been classified based on their chemical composition, which is not a complete picture. And every sien, like all the mine acknowledged this because internal structure should be examined, like the crystal stuff. And it's, it's physical properties, not just the chemical ones, but the broadest definitions of. Minerals like you can break down all minerals into the following groups. Native elements, which means they occur in their natural, in nature, in their purest form, which is carbon and sulfur, and then certain metals, semi metals and non-metals, sulfides, sulfur salts. Oxides slash hydroxides, hallide, carbonates, nitrates, bate, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates. Now, silicates are the most important of the mineral classes, although I feel like that's pretty subjective, but that's what the article said. So I'm gonna go with it cause I'm gonna go with it. Um, because 25% of all known minerals are silicates. So like of all those different categories, this is 25%, 40% of them are the most common ones on earth, and they make up 90% of Earth's crust. So like, geez, they're the minerals we're mostly going to encounter at the silicates. Which brings me to my one mineral highlight before we can move on and, uh, and talk about gems. My
Katy:one mineral highlight,
Laura:I mean, uh, there's a some, there's a lot of cool minerals out there. I was gonna, no, there is salt because most people don't think about salt being a mineral. Um, but quartz has always been close and dear to my heart. So quartz, it is the most abundant mineral on earth. It's found in all types of rock created at all temperatures. It's like generalist rock, and I always admire the generalists. Um, I consider myself a generalist.
Katy:How's a, was gonna say that needs to go on a t-shirt, but I just, I admire you myself. A generalist? No. That you admire the generalist. Oh, I truly admire the generalist.
Laura:As I mentioned earlier, it's made from oxygen and silicone which are super common elements in Earth's crust. It's resistant to chemical and physical weathering. So that means that most mountains, beaches, and deserts are made of quartz. Like some beaches are literally just quartz sand. Um, cause it's the last thing. I think that's the
Katy:one that's left. I can't remember if that's the one, if that's what it was. I'll have to look it up. But whenever we were in Destin, we were walking on the beach and it squeaked. Ooh, like, it, it squeaks when you walk. Maybe continue maybe, and I'll look, I'll look it up. What it, what it was, there was something unique
Laura:about it. It's heat resistant. It has certain electrical properties and it can be pretty much any color. Like a lot of times when you're looking around and you see like white lumps of rock that's quartz, but it can also be like pink and gray and so many different colors, all based on other things found inside of it. Okay. And it's super useful. We use quartz for all Yes. Sorts of
things.
Katy:Okay. So it is quartz sand. Okay. That it's the shape of it that makes it no, like legit. Makes it believe it. Squeak.
I
Laura:believe it. Like snow. Yeah. You know, like snow squeaks when you work on it. Yes. Yep. Yep. So we use quartz for so much because it's the most abundant thing, so why not? So we use it in glass making. So glass sand, like Katie was just talking about, that's like that ki kind of sand. The kind of sand that's 99% quartz. That's the kind of sand that they're gonna wanna turn into glass. So, That
Katy:squeaky sand, that squeezy sand. Gotta find me some of that squeaky sand. Make some
Laura:glass. That'd be so cool. They typically turn it into containers, fiberglass and specialty glasses like telescopes, microscopes, and other scientific instruments like lasers was one of mentioned.
Katy:So like a fine glass? Yeah, like it's
Laura:more the fine glasses, like the quality. Okay. Okay. Yeah. It's also used as foundry sand, which is like, you know, they have to make, when you, when you're pouring metal, when you're casting metal, you gotta pour it into sand, which is the mold. Mm-hmm. Cause it doesn't melt. This is used for that. Quartz is also a gemstone, which Katie will be talking about in a second. Yep. It's used in fracking, so like they shoot quartz down into the earth. And this, it's so strong that it holds the cracks open so that the natural gases can get through. It's used in electronics, scouring cleansers, grinders and sanders fillers and paint putty and rubber filter media, roofing granules, recreational sand like in volleyball, courts and kids play sands and all sorts of stuff. That's mostly quartz. And finally, something I had not heard of, but which is all through our lives called crystal oscillators. So one of the cool things about quartz is it, it vibrates at very precise frequencies. And this, these crystal oscillators were developed in the 1920s and then blew up during World War II because they really needed them because they could be turned into radio transmitters, TV transmitters and even time pieces. And we're still using them today. Today they're used in watches, computers, radios, gps, cell phones, all sorts of, anything that needs to be precise at keeping time or precise radio waves. Yeah, quartz, quartz. And now we can see, we can synthetically create and we do, we, we synthetically create quartz for a lot of the electronics and like yeah. The glass instruments that we need rather than mining it. But we, but we can't. And that's, that's it for minerals. I mean, I have wire minerals important, but I feel like we can circle back to that after gems.
Katy:Yeah. Yeah, because gems aren't important.
Laura:Some other people out there are like, what? Yeah. Women's are not
Katy:my best friend. Yeah, right. No, they're, they're really not. So while, like Laura said earlier, you know, minerals, it's the, the big overarching where gems is like a subset of it. That that is not, even though it's captivated humans for. Thousands of years,
Laura:right? Like the fuck, like there's been like horrible wars, horrible things done
Katy:right? And, and for gemstones and that have no value other than the value that we put on, put on them is pretty and shiny bananas. Yeah. That's it. Like everything Laura talked about, because it's not like, doesn't have the shine to it, you know? It's essential for life. But there's no, it's like, it's not a high price, but then gems who, which serves no purpose, but it's pretty, so we're gonna just, you know, put a high price on it. So craziness. But, so there are all lore though, for gems, Liza, and the colors, the sunny clarity and just the brilliance. And I'll get into some of the other little features of it. So the formation and classification of gems. Similar to Lores. You know, it comes from, again, minerals and processes, and it can take thousands of millions of years. They include this process includes a crystallization of minerals under specific conditions of pressure, temperature, and chemical composition. So again, everything that Laura talked about. Uh, some of them are going to give you court, some of them, some of those processes are gonna give you these gemstones
Laura:and like, it's still just a mineral. It's, it's just a mineral until you things to
Katy:it. Yes. Um, and it does, I mean, it does have some natural qualities that. Other minerals don't have. But the diverse array of gems can be classified as a distinct families or types based on their unique chemical compositions and distinctive crystal functions, uh, sorry, crystal structures further enhancing, are understanding of their origin and characteristics. So some of those properties that we're talking about it encompasses an array of a variety of properties and characteristics that contribute to what we see as just gimme, gimme and we can't say no to it.
Laura:When I was reading mine, like it seemed like what I was finding was like a, technically, like the difference between a plain old mineral and a gemstone was that gemstones have facets that are cut. Yes. But I'm sure there are other things.
Katy:Yeah, yeah. There are a few. So color, so a lot of minerals that you, you had talked about or would talk about. It, it really, that is one of the ones that prominently stands out between minerals and gemstones. So if you think of most minerals, for the most part, they're gonna be like your earth tones and things like that. You know, they might be, I don't know, like a brighter orange, but it's not gonna be like a, a gemstone think ruby and things like that. So it's gonna like. Really stand out. So yes, it is a mineral, but like that color is just think of like an emerald, like can you imagine the first person that found an emerald? Like even if it's like uncut, not shaved, all that stuff, you're just like, what is this? Like yeah, it's stands out so much compared to everything else that would be around it. And so it's because that that variety of palette of the hues, a variety of different colors, You know, that really makes it stand out compared to other minerals. The other thing is the clarity and transparency, which are critical aspects of the gems. And that's, you know, depending on, everybody knows what is it like the three or four Cs? I don't really go into it, but it's like clarity, cut, whatever that give gemstones their, um, value. Okay. Um, but it's the clarity and the transparency. Obviously some gemstones have more clarity than others, but.
Laura:It's an opal. I
Katy:mean like, yeah. Cause yeah, I have an opal somewhere that has a peregrine falcon carved into it that got it in Australia. Cool. Yeah, really like it. The optical effects, a lot of gemstones have optical effects, effects that most common minerals don't necessarily have, such as iridescence. Pastorism, which I had to look that up, but that is whenever the, there's like that starlike pattern that you see on some, on some of the gems. The color, some of'em have color change and That's so cool. Yeah. And just a variety of other things like that. So again, it's, it's a shiny object that makes it stand out. The durability and hardness measured on the most scale. I don't know if you mm-hmm.
Laura:I said, I just mentioned in past, I didn't say most scale. Yeah. But hardness was definitely Yes. Like one of the physical properties of all minerals. Yep.
Katy:Yep. And so that is the same thing applies to gemstones too. And, um, has to, I don't wanna say it has to do with their value nowadays, but it does still play, play into it. So furthermore, properties like luster and specific gravity provide valuable insights into the visual appeal and density of all gemstones, further enhancing their allure and desirability to people for thousands upon thousands of years. Yeah. So let's talk about some of the major gemstones and their features. Yes. While there are thousands of minerals, there are only some sources I found that said a hundred gemstones. Some were saying like 130. Okay. So somewhere around there of the
Laura:thousands. I'm sure it depends on what some people consider because like my, like exactly. It said that courts can be considered a gemstone. Yeah.
Katy:If it's polished up sign, if it's has a certain qual, a certain characteristics, yes, it absolutely could be. So, but. Of those a hundred, there are like 16 ish, which are seen as the key or the major, major groups. Okay. Um, so these are Burl, Burl, B E R Y L. That's my last name. Oh
Laura:really? Yeah. I, I, I think they just said Burl, but I don't know if that's really the way
Katy:it said No idea. So there, then there's Rizzo Burrow. Cardom, the diamonds, feldspar, garnet, jade, Lazar, Abilene, opal, quartz, which, so this included it. Spinel, topez, tourmaline, Torco, and Zhan. Okay. So, I'll just go
Laura:into a few, cause I definitely remember like reading earlier, like I didn't, you know, you think, like you, we just, we didn't just hear the words Ruby and Emerald, because they're a type of, One of those things. Yes. Which is so wild. Yes. I feel like nobody knows that.
Katy:No. So I'm just gonna go through some of the other ones. Some of the, some of these ones I didn't mention real quick, but just the highlight. I think even though those are the 16 most popular ones, I think the ones that people recognize, obviously diamonds, Definitely,
Laura:which, you know, which are diamonds or diamonds, but um, yeah, like lots of colors,
Katy:right? Yeah. They can come in a variety of colors. It's that cla again, variety of colors, but it's the diamond's worth comes in when it's the clarity. You know, the cut is, you know, man, but there's still some, yeah, cut as far as like the natural crystallization of how everything's lined up and whatnot. So they're remarkable optical properties, obviously people have just been drawn to them and. It's always been seen as a status of, you know, elegance and wealth. However, as many people know, diamonds are also shrouded in tragedy and greed, like some horrible, horrible things about diamonds. I've always
Laura:wondered why it, why we chose diamonds rather than something else. Is it because we value things that are are clear?
Katy:I don't know,
Laura:because I feel like there's gotta be some psychology behind
Katy:this. I don't know, because honestly like. Yeah, I, they're just plain like
Laura:to me, right. I've never thought that they were the most beautiful. No, definitely like colors. Me too. But I guess if you thought like they looked like starlight, like I don't, I don't, I don't know. There's gotta be some reason.
Katy:Well, another one though. Um, that, this one I can definitely see rubies. Yeah. Because of their deep red color command, admiration and desire. Again, their rarity among gemstones combined with their remarkable durability and mesmerizing beauty, makes them highly coveted and cherished by collectors and connoisseurs alike rubies. What were they in? Um, well, cuz there's this, there's the 16 main ones, but there's still a hundred ones. Yeah. So they're their own separate thing. Okay. So Ruby, I don't remember. I think. I think
Laura:so. The emeralds are not, that's what I was thinking.
Katy:Yeah. I don't remember. Another group though, and this one is not one of the 16 that I mentioned, but I'm gonna go for it because this is my birthstone gemstone and that's sapphires. Yes. Love. It's my favorite. That's, I know I love
Laura:sapphires the best, but sapphires are in some group, right?
Katy:Dude, you're asking too many complicated questions. This is easy. This. Well, cuz there's, but there's a hundred. Yeah, there's a hundred different ones. What? It's a, it's a corundum that, oh, corundum one. Okay. Yeah. So
Laura:that's for Sapphire. Yeah. And so, so
Katy:are rubies. Rubies are too. Okay. Yeah. So those are both the cordon ones. So Sapphire are the deep, deep blue ones. I mean, they come in a variety of colors. Again, like a lot of gemstones, but, Most people, when you think Sapphire, they think of that dark blue, which is yeah. Gorgeous. Yeah. That's
Laura:whater. I wanted not, not a diamond. I wanted the wanted.
Katy:Oh, sapphires are sapphire are so good. Emeralds are another one again, lush green color. Another one that I can, can totally see why people would want this. Diamonds don't know
Laura:emeralds. They're in the, they're in the burl group.
Katy:Emeralds are in bur.
Laura:Okay. Yeah. May's birthstone That my, that's my brother's. I was always jealous. Okay. I don't like garnets, and that's what mine is. Uh, yeah,
Katy:that's a, mine is sapphire, and I was so
Laura:happy. More boring version of a ruby. It is,
Katy:it really is. I'm so sorry. So in addition to those main gemstones, um, like I said, there are a plethora of other gemstones that possess own unique qualities and appeal amethyst, for instance. Um, which people, which is the type of courts, I think. Yes, I believe so. Yeah. Which, which is cool. Topaz. I mean, there's so many opals Again, there's so many different ones that are just
Laura:fascinating. Almost like fire opals from like healing in Australia, good are probably the most beautiful thing on planet Earth. Oh, in my opinion, down,
Katy:hands down, it's like,
Laura:it's like a rainbow or a peacock exploded
Katy:in a rock. Exploded. It's a peacock. It's like a peacock exploded in a rock.
Laura:Peacock exploded.
Katy:Oh goodness. So we talked a little bit, I'm gonna go a little bit more into the history. So throughout history, gems have obviously held cultural and symbolic significance and various ancient civilizations and mythologies. And honestly, when I started, I couldn't go into all of this too much. I too much. I was just
Laura:saying this should be an episode on it. Yes. It's just gem culture because I fast.
Katy:Yes, it is in insane. Saying that's why I didn't go into it too much because I was like, oh my goodness, this is a big cool episode, cuz it was really neat. But overall though, gemstones have been associated with power, wealth, and social status throughout different periods and cultures. And it definitely was like I. Trends, like you could see trends like for a while it was like, oh, sapphires, or like in this culture, this area, sapphires was the thing. Plus, it's
Laura:just because they are very regional, because it depends on the type of rock that there is. But
Katy:then as people traveled, yeah, then it was like, oh my goodness, we've never seen, we need to have, yeah, we need to have that. So then it would, you know, kind of. Trend and keep going and mo and move with people. So there's also gems. They hold spiritual and metaphysical importance to many religions and spiritual practices. Again, that could be a whole other episode in itself. A lot of people believe they're there to possess healing properties and enhanced spiritual energies and aid and meditation and self-discovery. Gems have been a constant source of inspiration for artistic expressions, especially. And this was another interesting one too, that I was just like, so they have been depicted in ancient literature, celebrated in paintings all kinds of stuff that people mimic gemstones and sculptures. So anytime I was looking through like, um, some of these sculptures that have, that people have done like long, a long, long time ago, and. Y you know what I'm, it would almost be like us a kid today drawing a picture and then they like always would draw like a mom with a necklace on. Okay. It was the same thing. It was like they included a lot of these gemstones specific accessories. Yes. Accessorize, you know, there's sculptures and stuff, so there's just, it is just really,
really
Laura:interesting. That is so cool. I, the sociology behind any nature stuff is, Like, it's so fascinating to me. Oh
Katy:yeah. Yeah. So because of that, you know, back in the day a lot of those gems, you know, they weren't polished and cut and everything like that as much as they are today. They were still chiseled and chipped away, you know, shined up as much as possible. And so gemstones today though, undergo an insane amount of cutting and polishing, um, processes utilizing. Ins, like trained in specialized technique and tools
Laura:and I'm sure they're like grown at this point too, right? Like Sure. Grow.
Katy:Yeah, they can. Yeah. Like mimic. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like the fake ones. But over time, like I said, like it used to just be, you know, a significant sign of importance and everything. And then we started, once man started like today, really started getting ahold of it and started shifting it and cutting it to how we want it to be. It's almost, I don't wanna say it's gotten. Like faker because we have started like growing things, but at the same time it's like, it's almost lost. Some of its natural beauty. Yeah. If that makes sense, because we've cut, we've polished, we've done so much and we've, we've put it in through treatments to en enhance, enhance the color and clarity to make it like, so that you could really see through it. So it's almost like, again, like so many things, humans step in the way cuz we're like, oh, we gotta make this better. We gotta make this better. But we throw it so far on the other end of the spectrum, it's not even really what it ever was. Yeah, it's not really what it was interesting because, because still if you look at like natural, like uncut, un cleaned, like rubies, like it's still really pretty. It's just if you look at what it comes out of the earth as versus now it's like it looks too totally different
Laura:things because the clarity isn't really there. Which is the phrase not at all the fascinating part where you're like looking into an. The universe
Katy:in sentences. Yeah, it is nuts. So of course anytime we talk about gemstones, obviously Laura and I already touched on it, the ethical considerations are always gonna be discussed and talked about. It is very important, and I mean, n I would like to say nowadays, People are aware and conscious of like, oh, hey, if is this good or not? Is this done under best practices? Yeah,
Laura:yeah. Like
Katy:ethical diamonds. Yeah. But it's so easy to just fudge all that. Oh, I'm sure. You know what I mean? And so that's what's sad about all this is like, Especially diamonds like sapphires, things like that. Opals, I mean, cuz again, whenever I was in Australia, the opal I got with a Pereg gun Falcon on it. There was an opal mine nearby and then we went to a jewelry store. And so it was really cool when they made that pereg gun Falcon one for me. But like nobody, there was, it wasn't like forced labor. Yeah, yeah. Forced labor for opals, like, like it is for, for diamonds. And so obviously over time the gemstones, they've been influenced by, again, the color clarity, the carrot weight, which I didn't really talk about but the rarity. All of that goes into that, that greed and that hunger for just the best, the better, you know, the biggest diamond, the, you know, clearest one, all kinds of stuff. And over time I. As we've added like grading and clarification or certification systems that add, like, I don't wanna say fake value cuz obviously if you want like a clear gem, that's good, but at the same time it's like we've put all that value onto this thing. Like we've, we've designed certifications and grading to say, Hey, this gemstone is better than this one is better than this one. Yeah. So we're just like forcing. Additional, like, I don't know, additional value onto something. So we're the ones that are saying it's valuable when yes. Diamonds serve a purpose and a lot of, um, I'm trying to think of something manufacturing even. Yeah, there is, there is like, like sandpaper, there's like diamond sand. Yeah. Like diamond tips. So there are like purposes for it, but you're not gonna find like diamond dip sandpaper or the drill bits and stuff. Yeah. That are gonna be, you know, Perfectly clear diamonds, you know, it is just not that. So again, we have it in everyday stuff.
Laura:Right? Can you imagine how many dud diamonds there are that they could go through to find the good ones?
Katy:Oh my gosh. Yeah. And so that's what I'm saying, like we're the ones who have taken that and kind of run with it, and we're the ones who have added that like extra layer of insanity onto it of just, this is what makes it valuable, this is what makes it good. And so why are people fighting over all this whenever? This is literally something that we've. Like we've put onto it, like it doesn't really
Laura:serve a purpose. They're like the precious metals, which are also considered minerals, but the precious metals, yes. It's, yeah,
Katy:it's just, but a lot of the metals though. A lot of the metals though, you can still use for a variety of things. Yeah. Most of these gemstones. Or just gemstone, like they're just shiny objects. Yeah. That's all. And I mean, I love them, but at the same time, it's just a shiny object that we put a ton of value into. Yeah. Um, and so that's where a lot of that, that conflict and all kinds of just global enterprise and just the trading and smuggling and all the craziness that that goes on. So anyway, so some of the contemporary uses of gems, I mean, Laura and I already hit on some of these besides like the, you know, industries of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, all that kind of stuff. Certain gemstones like we talked about, such as diamonds, have industrial applications due to their exceptional hardness. So there are again, a few of these gemstones that do serve a purpose. Very, very few. But many people believe in that metaphysical healing property. So again, once all of that stuff has started trending and coming back mm-hmm. Like the stones and the crystals, a lot of the, I don't know, I don't wanna say least popular ones, but like the amethyst, you know, those started making a comeback. Yeah. So their values have started to go up and things like that. But gemstones again, it's always been like, It's always been trending with because it is just a shiny object. It's been, this is, it's been humans assigning value to it. It's not like minerals where some things, some of those minerals might need more than others. So you would think that the ones that we need more have more value to it. Where than other ones less valuable gemstones were the ones that were signing the value to all of it. Yeah. Like there's really. Not a whole lot, lot of sensibility behind this other than, other than what we're doing to it. Another one
Laura:we what we think is pretty.
Katy:Yeah. Uh, just what we think
Laura:is pretty. So I just wanted to bring it back at the end of, you know. Yeah, of course. We just talked about why gemstones are important for cultural reasons. Wealth, the economy, all kinds of things. But in general, why do minerals matter? And we're, I'm here to tell you that minerals matter a lot because we'd be literally dead without them. Right. So, and we wouldn't have like earth to walk on. But, um, besides, you know,
Katy:besides earth to walk
Laura:on, but just a couple of like highlights humans need certain minerals to remain healthy and function. Like, people used to not think that mineral deficiencies were a big deal, but mineral deficiencies can kill you. Yeah. It's a huge deal. Yeah. So you need to have salt and you need to have some other things like zinc and like things like that.
Katy:Take your vitamins folks.
Laura:Take them. They're esen. They have, they have been. And it can continue to be essential for technological advancement. And when I first read that, I was like, what does that even mean? But duh. Okay. Like l. From the beginning. Technology is also stuff like cave paintings used as communication devices. Fire uses minerals such as flint and, um,
Katy:oh yeah, I didn't even think
Laura:about that. Yeah. And then, you know, today, like, you know, primitive man making tools out of certain minerals. Now we use them in cell phones, like all through time that we have relied on minerals to carry us through with technology. It's used. They're used in nearly every aspect of our daily lives. They're a crucial part of our co, of our culture. We're actually, they we're trying to find ways that we can use minerals to combat climate change by using them as carbon sinks. Oh, interesting. So like carbon sequestering. Yeah. And just my final thought, just to leave you with this, of how essential they are, the U S G S estimates that the annual, annual mind you mineral requirement to maintain the standard of living in the United States is eight 18 tons. Which is what? 40,630 pounds per person? Per year, geez. Of minerals, because that is things like, Stones. Yeah. Sand, gravel, cement, clay, salt, iron, phosphate, soda, ash, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, other metals and other non-metals. Hmm. So like we are consuming one person per year in That's nuts in the United States is consuming such fast amount of minerals. And they were even saying, you know, like, It's not just like sustainability at this point too, because even like sustainable options, like sustainable cars. Yeah. Cause we're not using gas, but we're using vast amount of other things for something. Yes. Like lithium ion batteries is using. Yes. You know, so like we're
Katy:How sustainable Yeah. Consuming, consuming, consuming. How sustainable is it?
Laura:Yeah. Yeah. So we definitely have to think about our mineral consumption. So,
Katy:Yeah, I don't think anybody is talking about that right now.
Laura:Absolutely not. That's the last of anyone's priorities. But let tell out we got aliens out there. We're in trouble.
Katy:We're not even talking about aliens. Why would we talking about minerals or our consumption?
Laura:Our, have you thought about your mineral consumption lately? Like instead of car insurance, I'm calling people
Katy:saying that like, call the car warranty. Yeah, that would be such a funny prank
Laura:though, would be, have you thought about your mineral consumption lately? What? Yeah. Well, I'm here to tell you that
Katy:that would be an an amazing call. Amazing call. All right, guys. Well that was a quick overview on minerals and Gems. Go ahead and follow us and reach out to us on Twitter or visit us on Patreon. Yeah, I normally say something else, but. Yeah, just reach out to us and hopefully share your ideas. If you guys have episode ideas, I like, did my mind just stop
Laura:working? No, it's all right. Uh, yeah, it's late and we're about to start a new week, so is already like, right. But yes, so everyone, we hope that you've, you know, you've learned a little bit and hopefully you care just a little bit more and we hope that we'll see you next week. Bye everybody. Bye.