Prepare to be dazzled by this shining and sumptuous visual guide to the world's greatest treasures. Feast your eyes on glittering gemstones, kaleidoscopic minerals, and famous trinkets in this comprehensive exploration of Earth's finest jewels. Following a foreword from Aja Raden, hundreds of pages take a lavish look at precious stones, precious metals, and organic gems in all their natural wonder. From agate to zoisite, everything under the Sun is encapsulated in spectacular photography and accessible text. Trace the history of gemmology and get the inside story on our planet's most famous and fabulous gems, including the mysterious Hope Diamond, the stunning Koh-i-Noor of the Crown Jewels, and exquisite Fabergé eggs. Find out their physical properties, check the price tags, and discover the most remarkable record-breakers. This exceptionally extravagant book is a picture-packed, fact-filled celebration guaranteed to bring sparkle to your life and your library.

Dig deep to discover our rocky planet, packed with natural wonders. Earth's extraordinary minerals, gems, shells, and fossils are all on dazzling display in this essential visual encyclopedia for children. Feast your eyes on the ultimate treasure trove that any pirate would envy. More than 1,000 stunning photographs showcase rocks and gems in glorious detail, ensuring you can recognise sedimentary from sandstone, metamorphic from marble, and pyrite from pearl. The unique qualities of each eye-catching material are described in-depth, together with their broad range of uses in art, industry, architecture, and science. Keep your eyes open for rainbow rocks, fluorescent minerals, priceless diamonds, and meteor showers on your geological journey of discovery. Meet dinosaurs in the prehistoric period to understand how fossils form, join the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt to investigate the limestone bricks, and take a dip in the ocean on the hunt for clams, cowries, and cockles. Treasure seekers, get set to start your own collection with The Rock and Gem Book.

The scandals, mysteries, and human stories behind the world’s greatest gems are brought to life by the curator of the Smithsonian’s National Gem Collection Dr. Jeffrey E. Post, curator of the National Gem Collection for more than 25 years, separates fact from fiction in an all-new and original book, revealing fresh information and regaling the reader with anecdotes and tales of some of the world’s greatest and most famous gemstones. Dr. Post is the author of the now out-of-print book The National Gem Collection (Abrams, 1997), which has sold more than 50,000 copies. In this brand-new book, he tells the stories of the Smithsonian’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, Star of Asia Sapphire, Carmen Lucia Ruby, Hooker Emerald, and Blue Heart Diamond—and also presents the tales, details, and fascinating facts surrounding rarely displayed gems from the Smithsonian vault and additions made to the collection since 1997. Not only a resource for learning about rare and beautiful gems, the book also presents the stories of the people who once owned or were associated with these jewels—from ordinary people to kings, emperors, maharajas, celebrities, and captains of industry.

Cleaning gems is not as straightforward as would at first appear to be the case. Fred Ward shows how to take care of valuable gems without causing damage. The book also covers the cleaning & care of precious metals and the storage of jewellery

From glittering gemstones to fascinating minerals and fossils, this incredible reference book is a stunning celebration of the Earth s buried treasures. Specially commissioned photography captures the essence and beauty of over 450 superb specimens, while lively and informative text describes the characteristics of each and its unique and changing relationship to humankind through the ages. Organized by rock classes and chemical groups, each rock, mineral, and fossil entry contains a photograph of the specimen together with lively, wide-ranging text describing its qualities and history of use. In addition, a detailed, at-a-glance reference panel provides key data for identification and classification.

Tired of seeing the same careers foisted upon women in TV, movies and magazines? Chemical engineer Stephanie Espy, a graduate of MIT, UC Berkeley and Emory University, tells the stories of 44 inspiring women in STEM to show girls and young women around the world a new set of women heroes to look up to.The statistics for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers are just plain sad. In recent years, fewer than 20% of college graduates in engineering and computer science were women. While stereotypes pervade about women in these fields, the truth is that most girls have never even heard of these careers and are not aware of the wide range of options that exist.In STEM Gems, you and your daughter, niece, neighbor, friend or student will discover: The stories of 44 inspiring women in diverse STEM fields and how they made it; The challenges these incredible women faced in pursuit of their dreams; The tremendous accomplishments these Gems have achieved in their respective STEM fields; Advice on how to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers; Actionable steps girls and young women can take right now to set themselves up for success; What girls and young women can expect in a promising STEM career, and much, much more!Through the powerful stories of the STEM Gems in this book, girls and young women will have their pick of current role models of various ages, ethnicities and job types. And through the eight chapters that outline actionable steps, girls and young women will learn what they can do right now, today, to set themselves up for success and to create their own unique paths. STEM Gems is relatable, encouraging and inspiring, demonstrating the limitless possibilities for the next generation of women.

Describes the basic shapes of crystals and other aspects of crystallography, including how they form in nature, how crystals are studied and identified, what gives them their amazing color, and how they are used in everyday life.

Finally the real truth about how master jewellers, gemmologists and major auction houses value diamonds and colored gemstones.

Hughes, of the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences, Bangkok, looks in detail at all aspects of rubies and sapphires, which, among the most sought after and precious of gems, account for over half of the world trade in colored gemstones. Includes 24 color plates and many bandw figures. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR