[Rockhounds] The last real mineralogist

[Rock Currier]

I would hope that there are others out there than Don who are becoming
mineralogists, but they are few and far between. He must find it lonely out
there. The classical definition of what a mineral is, seems to be firmly
entrenched and defended by the current IMA nomenclature committee and there
appears to immediate hope that a liberalized definition will emerge anytime
soon. The current definition is so narrow that the field of mineralogy is
quickly making itself irrelevant, leaving it to others to study and describe
bioremediated minerals or those that are too small to fit the classical
definition of mineralogy. You can know all about minerals, but you will have
to go outside your field if you want to use what you know and get a
paycheck. Perhaps Don could become a mineral dealer. That way he could
continue to play with real minerals and still get a paycheck, at least some
of the time.

Rock