Finest Opal ever unearthed!

FINEST OPAL EVER UNEARTHED WILL BE PUBLICLY DISPLAYED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AUSTRALIA.

SYDNEY.- An Australian museum said Monday it would exhibit what it believes is the best opal stone ever found -- a 6.0-centimetre (2.4 inch) multi-coloured gem unearthed in the Outback named the Virgin Rainbow. 

The South Australian Museum said the stone, valued at more than Aus$1.0 million (US$730,000), would go on public display for the first time in September to mark the centenary of opal mining in the country.   

"It's of unequalled quality, it's a fully crystal opal," museum director Brian Oldman told AFP. 

"It's almost as if there's a fire in there; you see all different colours. As the light changes, the opal itself changes. It's quite an amazing trick of nature." 

Dug up in the South Australia desert town of Coober Pedy in 2003 by local miners, the Virgin Rainbow came into the museum's possession about 18 months ago and will be part of an exhibition opening in Adelaide next month. 

Some 90 percent of the world's opals come from South Australia, once covered by an inland sea which over millions of years provided an ideal environment for the formation of the stone. 

"I think this exhibition will have the finest collection of precious opals that we believe have been brought to one place in the world," Oldman added. 

Opals were first discovered at Coober Pedy -- widely-known as the opal capital of the world --  in 1914 by a boy named Willie Hutchison who was on a gold mining expedition with his father.   

"The story goes that Willie set out in search for water one day, rather than staying at camp as he'd been instructed to do by his father," Oldman said. "He came back to camp with water, but also with precious opal gemstones." 


© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

(From: ArtDaily.com)

Gallium Metal

Gallium is a metal which melts on palm of the hand, due to its low melting point (29.76 °C).If you hold a solid gallium crystal in your hand, your body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silvery metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it freezes back into a solid. gallium isn't toxic and won't make you crazy like mercury does. And if you get tired of it, you can melt it onto glass and make yourself a mirror.

Photo: Facts You Never Knew

Gallium is a chemical element with symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Elemental gallium does not occur in free form in nature, but as the gallium(III) compounds that are in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite. Gallium is a soft, silvery metal, and elemental gallium is a brittle solid at low temperatures, and melts at 29.76 °C (85.57 °F) (slightly above room temperature). The melting point of gallium is used as a temperature reference point. The alloy galinstan (68.5% gallium, 21.5%indium, and 10% tin) has an even lower melting point of −19 °C (−2 °F), well below the freezing point of water. Since its discovery in 1875, gallium has been used as an agent to make alloys that melt at low temperatures. It has also been useful in semiconductors, including as a dopant.

Gallium is predominantly used in electronics. Gallium arsenide, the primary chemical compound of gallium in electronics, is used in microwave circuits, high-speed switching circuits, and infrared circuits. Semiconductive gallium nitride and indium gallium nitride produce blue and violet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and diode lasers. Gallium is also used in the production of artificial gadolinium gallium garnet for jewelry.

Gallium has no known natural role in biology. Gallium(III) behaves in a similar manner to ferric salts in biological systems and has been used in some medical applications, including pharmaceuticals and radiopharmaceuticals. Gallium thermometers are manufactured as an eco-friendly alternative to mercury thermometers. -WIKI-

Musical Ringing Rocks

This is a spot called the Ringing Rocks State Park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This has to be one of the coolest rock spots around. Musicians and visitors from all around the world come to visit this place and have jam sessions on the rocks. If you are ever in the area or plan to visit, be sure to bring a few different hammers.

Ringing Rocks are rocks that have the property of resonating like a bell when struck, such as the Musical Stones of Skiddaw in the English Lake District as well as the stones in Ringing Rocks Park, in Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania USA and the Bell Rock Range of Western Australia. Ringing rocks are also known as sonorous rocks or lithophonic rocks, as used in idiophonic musical instruments called lithophones.
-Wiki-