After a weekend of cleaning out my wife’s childhood bedroom, she stumbled upon an old rock collection that she had been building up since she was a little girl. In all honesty, I didn’t share her excitement as she was showcasing each rock; however, she had pulled out one that seemed eerily familiar to one that I had seen on YouTube. It was a translucent yet cloudy rock, smoothed on all sides, with the top and bottom having large flat surfaces. As any scientist would do, I became hyper-focused on this one rock, admittedly ignoring the rest of the rock show. I grabbed a piece of paper and placed this cloudy stone over a few letters, and sure enough, it was just as I expected: it was Ulexite!

As I placed the stone over the sheet of paper, I didn’t just peer through the stone to see the lettering, the letters themself seemed to be lifted to the rock’s surface. But how is this possible?Ulexite is a naturally occurring rock that behaves like a bundle of optical fibers! Optical fibers are a modern-day advancement that have revolutionized the speed and bandwidth of communication across the globe and are allowing for necessary advances in the medical and engineering fields. The reason optical fibers can transmit light so efficiently is due to their structure, which allows for a total internal reflection of the light passing through it, making the light passing through one end of the fiber unchanged on the other end. And yet, this feat of human innovation has already been realized in a naturally occurring borate-rich rock.

Poorly drawn representation of tubular crystalized structure similar to bundle of optical fibers. Red line demonstrates total internal light reflection

I think that is so cool. Ulexite is composed of crystalized sodium-calcium borate and is formed in basins when boron-rich runoff is evaporated from the sediment. This evaporation develops unique tubular crystals formed parallel to one another, producing a necessary structure for the internal reflection of light. This is why Ulexite has been coined the TV Rock, as it produces an image at its surface.

This rock instantly reminding me of King Solomon’s writings,

“What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun. "
-Ecclesiastes 1:9

As a thinker, innovator, and engineer this statement can be pretty daunting, to be faced with the understanding that there is nothing new under the sun. Even something as technologically advanced and seemingly hyper manufactured as optical fiber has been sitting right here naturally occurring. Yet, I am still here creating and working towards being a better innovator through my doctoral studies. Not because I will create something that God hasn’t already thought of, but because I can help make that which God has perfected more accessible to my fellow humans. The relationship between microstructure and light transmission may have been demonstrated by Ulexite, but it wasn’t until the advent of optical fiber that this technology could transform global communication, making the world feel that much more interconnected.

I guess next time, I will be sure to pay attention to my wife’s rock show.

TV Rock

“What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun. "

-Ecclesiastes 1:9

All the Best,

Alex

Nature’s Blueprint: An Engineer’s Study

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