God sleeps in the minerals • Hacker News Board

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#21

Post by abhikul0 » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

sawjet wrote: post #13

The Crystals. They speak to me.

And they say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfpMknlL-pg

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#22

Post by zokier » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:33 PM UTC

First thought in my head was that these would make great demos for 3DGS: both geometry and light interactions are non-trivial. I imagine that makes them difficult to capture with traditional photogrammetry

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#23

Post by adrian_b » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

namanyayg wrote: post #17

vscode-rest wrote: post #8

The Cubes are the most captivating to me. Organic mishmash of polyhedra and assorted blobs is one thing, but perfect cubes is uniquely striking.

Pyrite or fool's gold, lovely mathematical perfection and a great etymology to match!

Regarding etymology, for many centuries the substances that are now called "sulfides" were called "pyrites", after the "iron pyrite" i.e. the iron (II) disulfide, which is the most abundant sulfide mineral.

At the end of the 18th century, Lavoisier together with a few other French chemists have created the modern systematic chemical nomenclature, so the old term "pyrite" was replaced by "sulfide" (like also "vitriol" was replaced with "sulfate").

For who does not know, "pyrite" comes from "fire", i.e. from the pronunciation in Ancient Greek of the corresponding word that was cognate with English "fire" (Ancient Greek or Latin "p" corresponds with English "f").

Striking pyrite produces sparks, which can be used to start a fire.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#24

Post by shevy-java » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

Some of these look pretty cool actually.

I don't see any god though, but I think I saw godzilla hiding in one of those shapes.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#25

Post by Luc » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

cbolton wrote: post #19

The first picture looks like aura quartz to me (crystal with an artificial metal coating). Is it natural?

It’s indeed vacuum deposited metal on natural quartz crystal.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#26

Post by gus_massa » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

namanyayg wrote: post #17

vscode-rest wrote: post #8

The Cubes are the most captivating to me. Organic mishmash of polyhedra and assorted blobs is one thing, but perfect cubes is uniquely striking.

Pyrite or fool's gold, lovely mathematical perfection and a great etymology to match!

I agree. Here are a few more nice images for the GP: https://www.google.com/search?q=pyrite+cube&tbm=isch Remove "cube" from the reach, to see the not cubic samples too.