Timeline for Precious Gemstones or Crystals for eyes
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 5, 2017 at 12:58 | comment | added | TheBlackCat | @nzaman: It depends on the material and how it is structured. A transparent material laid down in thin layers, or more likely alternating thin layers of material and protein, would still be transparent. Lots of fish have transparent bones right now. | |
| Jan 5, 2017 at 6:38 | comment | added | nzaman | @TheBlackCat But would the resultant be transparent, or a collection of overlapping grain boundaries, e.g., bone, coral? I confess the majority of my knowledge of crystallization techniques is of industrial processes, not biological ones | |
| Jan 5, 2017 at 0:44 | comment | added | TheBlackCat | @nzaman: There are ways to bind minerals (and other atoms) to proteins that allows much more to be carried in the bloodstream than could be carried in a water solution, and allows them to be moved through non-polar areas like cell membranes. It is also possible to change the local chemical environment to control the direction of chemical reactions to shrink crystals in one area and grow them in another. Organisms already build up crystalline structures using ionic components using approaches like that. | |
| Jan 4, 2017 at 14:49 | comment | added | nzaman | @InbarRose The only reliable method we have of creating large crystals is by taking many small crystals and applying high temperature and pressure to fuse them together; even then they need to be cut and polished to get rid of rough edges. In a fantasy setting, you could put the organism is a corrosive setting that scours away the outermost part of the gem, creating a polished effect. Similarly, corrosive chemicals behind the gem could smooth the inner side, but that would prevent growth of the crystal/gem | |
| Jan 4, 2017 at 13:03 | history | edited | Frostfyre | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added paragraph spacing
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| Jan 4, 2017 at 11:22 | comment | added | Inbar Rose | Wow, very useful. I was hoping for just this kind of technical answer - but I was hoping for one that would support my idea. Do you think given that it's a fantasy world, and such creatures could theoretically live a very long time that a substantially sized gemstone (say the size of a snowpea) would be possible? And if so, how long would that take given different constraints? | |
| Jan 4, 2017 at 11:17 | history | answered | nzaman | CC BY-SA 3.0 |