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The article discusses the author's experience as a mineral collector and the joy they found in sharing their collection with others. The author contrasts their collection, which was not behind glass and could be handled and examined closely, with private collections that are encased behind glass and are untouchable. The author also describes the challenges of collecting small single crystals and twinned crystals and shares their own methods of storing and displaying their collection. The article concludes by expressing the author's joy in collecting and sharing their collection, while also acknowledging the limited availability and affordability of certain types of crystals. [Extracted from the article]

B Those in attendance b at the 46th Annual Rochester Mineralogical Symposium in Rochester, New York, on 13 April 2019, were in for a particular treat, for on that day mineral collector William "Bill" A. N. Severance of West Grove, Pennsylvania, provided the audience with a talk that was quite unlike any witnessed at prior symposia. I was one of the staff then, and I vividly remember meeting Severance at the museum when he was there on a later visit because he handed me a personal check for several hundred dollars for the museum's mineral collection.) In any case it was the association with Leavens that opened the door for Severance into a world of exquisite minerals. He had been buying minerals from St. Louis dealer Gary Hanson who, during a phone call, told Severance that he had just returned from making a trade with Paul Desautels at the Smithsonian and had secured a repaired azurite from Tsumeb. Severance closed his talk with personal insights into his collecting: "I have always enjoyed preparing mineral exhibits "just for fun" and taking exhibits to mineral shows to share my collection with others. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the mineralogical phenomenon, flattened crystals in muscovite which is not widely recognized and also provides new information recently gathered with the invaluable support of doctor John Rakovan, of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Topics include crystals of the garnet almandine stated to be curiosities that were once relatively abundant in rock shops in the Spruce Pine area in North Carolina.

The article features the emerald-green, tanzurine, and cherry-red quartz found in the mineral deposits of Tanzania. Topics discussed include an overview of these quartz, the historical account of these minerals, their mineralogy, their characteristics, their mineral components, their deposits, and their different species.

The article reviews the exhibition "Collection of Collections" by Renato Pagano at the 2017 Munich Mineral Show in Germany.

The article reports that smoky quartzes are undoubtedly second-generation crystals that are attached to shards or hexagonal stems of earlier milky quartz crystals broken free from whatever matrix on which they formed. It notes that the rocks in the area of the diggings are some of the most intensely folded and faulted rocks found anywhere in the Appalachian Mountains. They form steeply dipping anticlines and synclines, some of which are even overturned.

The article focuses on the fluorapatite from the Foote mine in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. It discusses two distinct paragenetic stages in the deposit and four distinct mineral-forming stages associated with the development and postemplacement alteration of the pegmatites. It relates the mining of fluorapatite by Foote Lithium Co. that developed the mine in 1952.

The article focuses on study about tourmaline crystals entitled "A Pseudomorphic Quartz-Tourmaline Relationship from Northern Nigeria." Topics discussed include the compositions of pegmatite and its cores, the effect of hydrothermal solutions on tourmaline crystals, and the insights of geology and geophysics professor David London on the commonality of hollow crystals of black tourmaline and beryl.

The article focuses on the emergence of pseudomorphs of quartz after crystals of an undetermined mineral or minerals in Morocco since 1984. It mentions that such mysterious objects have been found in regions including Sidi Rahal, El Kelaa des Sraghna Province, and Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz. It also notes the mystery surrounding objects where most of them appear to have developed inside of geodes.

The article presents information on polyhedroid minerals which are described as flat-sided, geometric-appearing blocks of polycrystalline quartz. It says that the polyhedroids tend to be hollow, and encrusted by druses of usually colorless quartz crystals, therefore they may be a type of geodes. It also discusses different theories of the formation of polyhedroids.

The article discusses the mineral market of etched and gemmy spessartines (a garnet species) from Minas Gerais, Brazil and etched and gemmy beryls, variety heliodor from Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Topics discussed, include the huge market of spessartines and heliodor as pegmatites, the euhedral characteristic of the cavities of these minerals and the evidence that suggests that these crystals are once quite normal crystals that originally must have exhibited typical morphology for the species.

Several letters to the editor are presented including one offering information on the Denver Gem and Mineral Show's open house on September 14, 2016, another commenting on the article "Hexagonal Hole in Albite and Mi-crocline From the Crystal Peak Area, Teller County, Colorado" in the November/December 2015 issue, and one announcing William Rose of Michigan Technological University as the recipient of the 2015 Charles A. Salotti Earth Science Education Award.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "State Earth Science Symbols of the American Southwest," "Not Japan-Law Twinning" and "Celestine-Bearing Geodes from Wayne and Emery Counties, Southeastern Utah: Genesis and Mineralogy."

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to the articles in the previous issues including "Diamond of Russia" in the November/December 2008 issue, "Greenstone" in the November/December 2008 issue, and the article about the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS) Scholarship Foundation grant for 2008.

The article examines the characteristics of spessartines from Penha do Norte, Galiléia in Brazil. Compared to Californian spessartines, the spessartines from Brazil have been identified to have exceedingly homogeneous composition for its irregular shapes scattered in albite. For zoning cannot be a reliable source to explain its formation, the Navegadora spessartines have been analyzed to be remnants of larger etched crystals for they possess a common crystallographic orientation.

The article examines the odd pointed fluorite crystals from Elmwood zinc mine in Smith County, western Tennessee. It discusses the characteristics of fluorite crystals with complex surface and which corners consist of gemmy, single unit fluorite not different from the caps of the floater points. Also included are photographs of various fluorites points.

The article examines the hemispherical fluorite found in the area around Ajanta, India. Some of the fluorites are spherical while other were kidney-shaped with colors ranges from honey to pale amethyst. It explains how fluorine in the basalts resulted to formation of the flourite. Other features of the fluorite are discussed.

The use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has increased over the past several decades in the United States while overweight and obesity rates have risen dramatically. Some scientists hypothesize that HFCS consumption has uniquely contributed to the increasing mean body mass index (BMI) of the U.S. population. The Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Policy convened an expert panel to discuss the published scientific literature examining the relationship between consumption of HFCS or "soft drinks" (proxy for HFCS) and weight gain. The authors conducted original analysis to address certain gaps in the literature. Evidence from ecological studies linking HFCS consumption with rising BMI rates is unreliable. Evidence from epidemiologic studies and randomized controlled trials is inconclusive. Studies analyzing the differences between HFCS and sucrose consumption and their contributions to weight gain do not exist. HFCS and sucrose have similar monosaccharide compositions and sweetness values. The fructose:glucose (F:G) ratio in the U.S. food supply has not appreciably changed since the introduction of HFCS in the 1960s. It is unclear why HFCS would affect satiety or absorption and metabolism of fructose any differently than would sucrose. Based on the currently available evidence, the expert panel concluded that HFCS does not appear to contribute to overweight and obesity any differently than do other energy sources. Research recommendations were made to improve our understanding of the association of HFCS and weight gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the common usage of prismatic to describe crystals, the color photographs and captions in a calendar, and Wikipedia's information on quartz. The habitual use of prismatic to describe crystals is misleading, except when used for crystal cleavage. Criticism on the color photographs and wrong captions of quartz and minerals in "Rocks and Crystals, 2007" are detailed. The article states that Wikipedia's information on quartz is inadequate, disorganized and questionable.

The article deals with the controversy in the trade of various types of Paraiba tourmaline elbaite. The author states that some miners argued that the name Paraiba should be restricted to stones found within the state of Paraiba in Brazil. There are also some who believed that the term should be used for all blue and blue-green to green elbaite whose color can be attributed to copper, irrespective of where it was found.

Presents information on the artichoke quartz cluster from the Shangbao pyrite mine in Hunan, China. Composition of the quartz; Speculated relationship between the pyrite, fluorite and quartz to the order of crystallization; Mysteries surrounding the formation of the quartz.

The article offers information related to minerals. Topics discussed include the relevance of rose color intensity of gems, factors that should be considered for prices of gems such as sharpness, size, and color, and the crystal structure of minerals. Also mentioned the star formation which are commonly found in minerals with quartz and hexagonal symmetry.

Part II. Presents stories by dealers, collectors and curators on their experiences in obtaining mineral specimens in Mexico. Names of dealers, collectors and dealers; Description of jobs; Location of jobs; Preparations for Mexican trip; Location of Mexican site; Description of specimens searched and obtained; Difficulties overcome; Companions in searches.

Examines William Harvey's theoretical commitment to the primacy of the blood developed from his study of the chick in the hen's egg. Analysis of references to the primacy of the blood; Discussion of the origins of the quantitative argument; Elaboration on Harvey's attitude to a major debate during the two decades following the discovery of the circulation.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles including "Curved, Bent, and Twisted Crystals" in the November/December 2012 issue, "Polyhedroids" by John White in the May/June 2014 issue and one on the fourteenth annual seminar on mineral photography and photo competition.

The article presents the author's insights on the mysteries in crystal minerals in Japan. It relates the publication of the book "Crystal Habits of Minerals," by Ivan Kostov and Ruslan I. Kostov. It mentions that C. S. Weiss is the one who first recognize the Japan-law twins minerals in 1829. It adds that the rate of addition of atoms affects the increase of the probability of twin formation.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles regarding diamonds, the winners in the photography competition at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in Texas in February 2014, and "A Re-discovered Twin Law in Kyanite from Africa."

The article presents tables of normal percentile points "P". The U.S. National Bureau of Standards gives two 20 decimal place tables of percentile points of the normal distribution. The central role of the normal distribution in many types of statistical analysis dictates that adequate tables should be readily available. These tables should be sufficient for almost all problems requiring values of the normal distribution function. Interpolation in the National Bureau of Standards tables is time consuming and complicated. Since computers do much statistical computation, the statistical constants used by the computer should be accurate to the length of the computer word. There is no economy in entering, for example, the 97.5 normal percentile point as 1.96 rather than 1.9599640, if the computer word holds 8 decimal digits for IBM 7094, 360, etc. or 1.95996,39845,40054 for a 16 digit word for IBM 360 double precision, CDC 6600, etc. The computations were performed on the University of Minnesota CDC 6600 computer using a double precision program, which carries about 29 significant figures.

Discusses the moments of the log-Weibull order statistics. Definition of the moments of order statistics; Formulae for the log-Weibull distribution; Relationship between Weibull and log-Weibull variables.

The book is written in an easy-to-read, almost conversational style and is illustrated with historical photographs, sketches, and mineral photographs. I quote here his opening comments (p. 214): This intriguing publication is a collection of loosely connected, anecdote-filled chapters, each devoted primarily to a mineral species or mineral group. An inquiry to Marie Huizing proved fruitful; she found that the very prolific book reviewer Bob Cook had indeed done the job back in 1998 in the May/June issue of volume 73 of I Rocks & Minerals i . [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the claim that the mineral quartz has no cleavage which, according to the author, is a common misstatement in mineralogy texts. The author recalled conducting a survey of literature regarding the subject and found that all the authors inclined to deny cleavage in quartz are European. A table listing the literature references to cleavage in quartz examined by the author is presented.

The article describes the author's trip to check out a fossil trilobite and starfish site in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. At the site fossils are easy to spot because almost all of them are partly or completely covered by a fine yellowish powder, which can be seen at arm's length. Early on, the author began to find lots of trilobite segments, trilobites were, by far, the most abundant fossils.

Presents a response by Joseph A. Mandarino to the article "The Nomenclature Debacle," by John S. White in the May/June 2004 issue.

A classic definition of pseudomorphs goes something like this, the replacement of one mineral by another in which the form of the original mineral is preserved. There are two main types; paramorphism, wherein one polymorph changes to another for example, calcite after aragonite and pseudomorphism, which involves a chemical change wherein components of the original mineral have been partly or completely replaced by others for example, native copper after cuprite and goethite after pyrite. Simply put, a perimorph is an example of one mineral forming a crust over another, usually requiring the subsequent dissolution of the original mineral so that the crust is a hollow shell or cavity that replicates the original mineral's external form only. According to the dictionary, a perimorph is a mineral that encloses another mineral.

The article focuses on the phenomenon of disjoined crystals in different areas of the globe. Topics discussed include an overview of disjoined crystals, the historical background of their discovery, the mineral species and specimens found in the area, their mineralogy, and the characteristics of these crystals.

Discusses the parting of twin cystals. Minerals that exhibit parting; Relationship between parting and twinning; Experiments with magnetites; Spinel-law twinning; Twinning of quartz according to the Japan law.

Discusses the formation, behavior and morphology of Chinese beryl crystals. Physical attributes of beryl crystals; Morphology that produces re-entrant angles; Parallel growth of crystals.

Illustrates the difficulty of identifying all forms of twin laws among crystals. Four twin laws known for calcite; Features of the specimen collected in the Annabel Lee mine in Illinois.

The article offers information on former Auburn University's Department of Geology and Geography head Robert B. "Bob" Cook Jr. who is the inspiration for the name of bobcookite. It states that bobcookite, which is a triclinic hydrous sodium aluminum uranyl sulfate, is named in honor of Cook. It presents Cook's biography including his birthday, educational background, and career.

An obituary for mineral dealer Frederick Ludlow Smith III is presented.

Letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in the previous issues such as "Unusual Morganites from Crrego do Urucum, Galiléia, Minas Gerais, Brazil," by Jim Houran and John Rakovan in the July/August 2013 issue and "Quartz Cores in Tourmaline Crystals" in the September/October 2015 issue.

The author offers his opinion on the claims of Richard W. Wise, author of the book "Secrets of the Gem Trade: The Connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones," on his blog Gemwise that the distinction made between precious and semi-precious is a distinction without a difference. He asserts that what Wise does not get into is exploring the motivation behind the continued use of semi precious. He cites that the term precious is useful in distinguishing between those that has gem potential and those that does not.

In this article, the author explores the state of single crystals. The author makes a distinction between ideal single crystals and loose crystals. The latter are often found in single-crystal collections because the former tend to be scarce. In between are crystals that have barely discernible attachments. The author also asks why it is so difficult for many dealers to understand what constitutes a true single crystal.