This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ph.D. candidate Natalia Seliutina has followed gemstones from the -30° temperatures of Siberia to the carving studios of Ōtepoti and the particle accelerators of Taiwan in her quest to discover why pounamu is one of the toughest natural materials on Earth. Fresh from the publication of Natalia's paper in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Kathryn van Beek catches up with her to find out how understanding the properties of pounamu might one day help us explore space.
"Why did I choose to study rocks? That's a deep question," geology Ph.D. candidate Natalia Seliutina says. "Consciously, I think it's a good choice because geologists are always needed.
Subconsciously, I think it's because of my grandma." Natalia grew up in Siberia, Russia, where her grandmother used to read her fairy tales. "She was from the Udmurt Indigenous group in the Southern Ural Mountains, which are famous for rich mineralization and a variety of rocks," Natalia says. "In her tradition, there were a lot of fairy tales where the main characters were kinds of rocks, so I always had this attraction to it." Natalia's love of rocks also comes from her Siberian side.
"Nephrite jade is an important part of the culture. We have a belief system around it, and we feel drawn toward it," Natalia says. As a result of Indigenous groups being separated during the Soviet Union era, Natalia says there is no united opinion about the cultural meaning of jade.
"The traditions were not carried on through communities, and they vary from family to family. In my family, there's a belief that when the spirit of a woman dies, part of her spirit goes into a jade bracelet that is carried through the female line," Natalia says. "My mum has one of these bracelets, so the spirit of ancestral females is guiding her.
It's been carried through generations, and it has its own histories and tales attached to it." It was nephrite jade—which in Aotearoa is also known as greenstone or pounamu—that brought Natalia to New Zealand. "When I saw there was an opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. in nephrite jade, I was like, that's amazing. It combines a personal interest for me with an advanced question about materials science." Natalia is studying the microstructure and mechanical properties of the stone, with the hope that it may help us develop new materials in the future.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
