For the first time, scientists have cataloged every different way that every known mineral can form (including calcite in the first photo, diamond in the second, azurite in the third and an opalized ammonite in the fourth) and put all of that information in one place. This collection of mineral origin stories hints that Earth could have harbored life earlier than previously thought, quantifies the importance of water as the most transformative ingredient in geology, and may change how researchers look for signs of life and water on other planets. Past mineral research has focused on the “what,” such as minerals’ structure and chemical makeup. The new research prioritizes the “how” by thinking about minerals as things that evolve out of the history of life, Earth and the solar system. Intriguingly, the research shows that half of all known mineral kinds form in ways that ought to have been possible on the newborn Earth. The implication: Of all the geologic environments that scientists have considered as potential crucibles for the beginning of life on Earth, most could have existed as early as 4.3 billion years ago. Life, therefore, may have formed almost as soon as Earth did, or at the very least, had more time to arise than scientists have thought. “That would be a very, very profound implication — that the potential for life is baked in at the very beginning of a planet,” says paleobiologist Zachary Adam. (📸: Rob Lavinsky/Arkenstone) #science #mineral #geology #diamond #calcite #azurite #planetaryscience

A laser blast produces miniature diamonds from plain-old plastic — the same kind used in soda bottles. When squeezed to about a million times Earth’s atmospheric pressure and heated to thousands of degrees Celsius, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, forms nanodiamonds, physicist Dominik Kraus and colleagues report. Each laser blast in their experiment sent a shock wave careening through the plastic, amping up the pressure and temperature within (as illustrated above; laser shown in green). Probing the material with bursts of X-rays ( red) revealed that nanodiamonds (inset) had formed. Ice giant planets, such as Neptune and Uranus, have similar temperatures, pressures and combinations of chemical elements as the materials in the study, suggesting that diamonds may rain down in those planets’ interiors (lower right). What’s more, the researchers say, the new technique could be used to manufacture nanodiamonds for use in quantum devices and other applications. Nanodiamonds are commonly produced using explosives, Kraus says, but that is not an easy process to control. The new technique could create nanodiamonds that are more easily tailored for particular uses, such as quantum devices made using diamond with defects. (🎨: HZDR/Blaurock) #science #physics #laser #diamond #nanodiamond #planetaryscience #uranus #neptune #plastic