[Rockhounds] story: mysterious Mayan blue dye revealed

[DonH]

I like to give stories like this to the lab students to show how 
minerals apply to our lives in many ways.  This tells how the mineral 
palygorskite is a component of a vey durable blue dye used by the 
Mayans; apparently the composition of the dye had been a mystery for 
quite some time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080227/sc_nm/maya_blue_dc

Best,
Don