Did you know?
Medieval miners hit copper-red nickeline expecting copper, got only poisonous fumes, and blamed a goblin, Old Nick. The mineral kept its curse in its name, and later gave us the element nickel.
Nickelskutterudite looks like a plain lump of tin-white metal, but its cage-like structure lets loose atoms rattle inside, trapping heat while letting electricity pass. That rare trick makes its mineral family a model for the thermoelectric generators that power deep-space probes.
