KRYPTONITE!

In the exciting world of NEW MINERALS we see a news report of the discovery of KRYPTONITE!

BBC News reports the discovery of a new mineral, now named Jadarite, which bears the formula for kryptonite as revealed in Superman Returns, the movie.

A white silicate mineral whose chemical composition includes boron, lithium and sodium was found in a mine in Serbia near a town called Jadar. It doesn't contain any of the element krypton (surprise, surprise) so the mineralogical community doesn't feel "good" about naming it kryptonite, despite the fact that its formula is like that seen in the movie Superman Returns on a box of kryptonite.

This, of course, from the same group of people who feel mineral names like Jimthompsonite, dickite, cummingtonite (the latter being the most dirty mineral name in the whole field) are A-OK!

But perhaps the best part of the whole BBC article is this comment on the newly discovered Jadarite:

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

Whew! While I would dearly love to have a sample of this in my collection I was initially afraid that my yellow-sun induced superpowers would make me succeptible to harm from Jadarite!

And if I can make one request to the committee responsible for axing "kryptonite" as a valid mineral name for this material, it would be:

Why not call it cryptokryptonite?

I think everyone would be happy then.