Anyone who knows my writing knows I love exploring the ideas behind crystals and meteorites, so of course this topic was going to crop up sooner or later.
Until very recently, the idea of a naturally-occurring quasicrystal was thought to be impossible.
However, one was discovered in Russia in the 1970s, thought to be from a meteorite, and now scientists are tentatively guessing it to be 4.5 billion years old - about the age of our solar system. As for how this particular crystal formed, scientists don't know. From the website linked above:
The metallic aluminum present in the rock usually requires a very different set of processes to form, and it has not been found in any other meteorites. In other words, while the isotope ratios indicate an extraterrestrial origin for the rock, its composition marks it as a new type of meteorite, one with uncertain origins.
So.
WHAT IF something else - something intelligent - created this crystal? Who did it? What did they use it for? How did it end up on Earth? Might humans be able to use the crystal the same way the "being" who created it did? How might that change human technology?
(And is anyone else thinking ginzuishou?)
Just a little something for your Monday mind to munch on.
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