Discussions

╳Discussions

Groups

Recent Images in Discussions

Improving Mindat.orgPOTD - aquamarine with bubble - "motile"

16th Apr 2024 04:41 UTCHerwig Pelckmans

Aquamarine

Skardu Area, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

See https://www.mindat.org/photo-1338431.html

Actual caption: Etched, pale blue aquamarine xl with a big (4mm) motile bubble.

xl stands for crystal - not everyone might know this abbreviation.

I thought it was a typo (for mobile), but motile is indeed an English word. According to wikipedia: Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy.

In this case it's a bubble, not an organism, and so the question is whether it would not be better to have "mobile" instead of "motile" ...

In any way, thank you, Martin, for adding this photo to mindat and for teaching me a new word.

16th Apr 2024 10:39 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

Motility is also used in medicine to describe movement of material through the digestive tract. I would choose "mobile" or "moveable" first, but "motile" still works.

Very cool specimen in any case--it's the largest bubble in proportion to enclosing crystal size that I have seen.

16th Apr 2024 11:15 UTCChristian Klein

not much interest in nit-picking generally, but now you have piqued my professional interest, Ed, and I can not help it:

Motility in anatomy or physiology is a property or ability of a tissue, cell, organism. The small intestine has motility so that it can move partially digested food forward. This makes the term funny in the context of mineralogy, it would indicate that the crystal moves the bubble contents around :) Waiting for that type of crystal !

Best wishes

Christian

16th Apr 2024 17:31 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

Thanks for the clarification. My medical knowledge is at the level of paramedic and ER technician, with an additional interest in cardiology (just published a research article on ECG technique!), so I'm not up on the finer points of gastroenterology. I guess "motility" is more of a stretch here than I thought.