Rocks, Crystals, and Minerals, Dummy Style

kidney stone composition

If the reader has more than a passing familiarity with the topic, it can be quite easy to spot a freelancer spreading around the bull. That's one reason why we're running Minerals Week: we have a couple of rockhounds on staff and it's easy for them to spot fakery from the misstatements and misinterpretations our candidates have published. We're talking misstatements such as those made by Gwen Nicodemus in her EzineArticles.com post, "What's the Difference Between Rocks, Crystals, and Minerals?"

Our staff rockhound was really looking forward to Gwen's take on how crystals fit into that rubric, so we'll start there. Nicodemus informs us that

"Crystals are a special kind of minerals. They are a subset of minerals. So, while all crystals (not made by biological processes) are minerals, not all minerals are crystals. Crystals are minerals that have flat faces that meet at regular angles. A lot of geologic time and room to "grow" are required for large, beautiful crystals to form."

We aren't certain that we'd consider crystals to be a "subset of minerals," given that "subsets" of minerals are generally based on composition or structure as opposed to appearance. Oh, well, at least she didn't tell her readers that crystals have magical powers...
Nicodemus didn't make just that one mistake, though: perhaps her biggest error is a failure to understand one word in the definition of a mineral. Here, in her own words:

"Minerals are made by inorganic processes... Minerals are not made inside living organisms. So, feldspar is a mineral, but a kidney stone, even if it has a consistent chemical formula, is not a mineral."

We beg to differ, Gwen: most kidney stones are mineral in nature – often calcium phosphate (apatite) or ammonium phosphate (struvite). Likewise, much of the calcium carbonate in limestone was created by living organisms as their hard skeletons, e.g. clam shells and coral. It is not the process by which the substance forms that defines organic vs. inorganic, it's the presence of carbon and hydrogen. Neither apatite nor calcite contains carbon and hydrogen, so both are inorganic – even if they are made by living organisms. And then there's

"...granite is a rock. It does not have a uniform structure. It's a mush, usually made of feldspar, quarts [sic], and mica. You can usually look at a piece of granite and see the black mica, pink feldspar, and white quartz."

We doubt that anyone who picked up a hunk of granite would consider it "mush," Gwen... oh, and the mica in granite? it's typically muscovite, which isn't "black."

Here we have yet another homeschooling mother parceling out misinformation to her kids. And people wonder why American schoolchildren lag behind other industrialized nations in the sciences. Perhaps it's because so many Dumbass of the Day recipients think they know enough to teach children.

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