When Philippe Belley came to the University of British Columbia to study how gemstones form, he didn’t think he would need to learn how to protect himself from polar bears.
When Philippe Belley came to the University of British Columbia to study how gemstones form, he didn’t think he would need to learn how to protect himself from polar bears.
But when some of those precious stones are buried in the Canadian Arctic on Baffin Island, where the world’s largest land predator also roams, sometimes you roll the dice in the name of science.
“We spotted four polar bears but luckily there were no close encounters,” said Belley, a recent PhD graduate of the department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences. “But we did learn a lot about how some unique gems are formed, which will change the way people look for them.”
Belley and UBC mineralogist Lee Groat have published the first scientific study of cobalt-blue spinel in Canada, a mineral that is largely unknown to the general public but produces rare gems that are coveted by collectors and connoisseurs worldwide.
Continue reading at University of British Columbia.
Image via B.S. Wilson.
