Quantum Mineralogy

Mineralogy as a discipline has established the principles of crystal structure, symmetry, and chemistry that dictate all of modern material science underlying everything from computers to photonic technologies operating based on quantum mechanical principles. However, nature itself also acts a laboratory assembling naturally occurring minerals that exhibit even exotic quantum phenomena. I will discuss examples such as natural superconductors, strange metals, or spin liquids which result from the interplay of the quantized nature of electrons, spin, and lattice. I will conclude with a general perspective on how nature inspires and teaches us about intriguing physical phenomena that surround us, often in plain sight