To many people, a rock is just a rock. If anyone has been house shopping, you know how realtors will mention that the countertops are "granite" and you might wonder why, from house to house, they all ...

It’ll be a snap to identify gemstones once Robert Downs finishes his library of spectral fingerprints for all the Earth’s minerals. Downs is almost halfway there. So far, the associate professor of ...

Fourth-grade students from Rockford Elementary School recently participated in a mineral classification lab with Jeff Edwards from the Surry County Schools Science Institute. Edwards brought five ...