This is bismuth — a natural chemical element that chemically ... Bismuth, a brittle metal with a silvery-white color, is found in the earth’s crust. It’s often as a byproduct of mining ...

Ram Mohan looks at how bismuth — a remarkably harmless element among the toxic heavy metals in the periodic table — has sparked interest in areas varying from medicinal to industrial chemistry.

At the GIA Laboratory, mineralogists related the stone to synthetic bismuth antimonate (BiSbO), but with a formula arrangement never previously found in the natural world. Kyawthuite is a unique ...