EXPLORE | BREAKTHROUGHS
DISPATCHES
FROM THE FRONT LINES
OF SCIENCE
AND INNOVATIONPHOTOS: JORGE GUERRERO, AFP/VIA GETTY IMAGES (GEODE); BOGNÁR JÁNOS (HENBANE); ALAMY STOCK PHOTOANY GEODE MIGHT MAKE US WONDER: What geologic forces
form these hollows lined with crystals? But the Pulpí Geode,
discovered in an abandoned Spanish mine, takes wonder to a
different scale. One of the world’s largest geodes, it’s an approx-
imately 390-cubic-foot cavity whose walls bristle with imposing
gypsum crystals, some nearly seven feet long. Now scientists
are hoping to uncover how these colossal crystals developed.
They seem to have been made by a very specific recipe: a
250-million-year-old supply of the mineral anhydrite, a climate
hospitable to crystal formation, and lots of water and time. In the
resulting chemical soup, larger crystals may have cannibalized
smaller ones to boost their own size, while swings in the local tem-
perature could have accelerated the crystal growth even further.
Though key chapters remain incomplete, this otherworldly
site now has a possible origin story. —ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWSGEOLOGYA GIANT AMONG GEODES
SCIENTISTS ARE WORKING ON THE RECIPE FOR THIS
SPANISH SITE’S ENORMOUS GYPSUM CRYSTALS.The grand master workout
Though chess is hardly a strenuous
sport, its grand masters experience
physical costs on a par with those faced
by more active athletes. Because of the
human body’s response to the stress of
elite play, chess professionals
can burn up to 6,000 calo-
ries a day in tournaments,
a Stanford University re-
searcher says. —ANNIE ROTHETHNOBOTANYDid this plant
help Vikings
lose control?
The English word
“berserk” is derived
from berserkers,
violent Vikings said
to consume some-
thing that induced
rage before battle.
Historians have
long assumed
that fly agaric,
a hallucinogenic
mushroom, was the
berserkers’ drug
of choice. But now
ethnobotanist
Karsten Fatur says
Vikings likely took
henbane (below).
The plant is
more common in
Scandinavia than fly
agaric, he says, and
has compounds
with greater links
to aggression. —A .R.Geologist Milagros Carretero sits inside the Pulpí Geode, one of the world’s largest geodes.