Latest news with #Humboldtian
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
75-year-old coal mine owner's letter leads to the discovery of one of Earth's rarest mineral
A letter discovered in 2023 during the digitization of the archive of the Bavarian Environment Agency , or LFU, has rewritten a chapter of mineral history . The 1949 letter was written by a coal mine owner and sent to the agency; it mentions the Humboldtine , one of Earth's rarest minerals. The discovery of the misplaced letter in the government archive led the experts toward a shoebox of lemon‑yellow fragments that remained unnoticed for decades, according to German geologist Roland Eichhorn of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) led the modern hunt that followed. Soon, his team learned they were staring at one of the scarcest minerals on the planet, Humboldtine. The letter stated that Humboldtine was found in coal seams at Matthiaszeche, near Schwandorf, a town on the Naab River in Upper Palatinate. The agency requested samples to check the discovery. But there don't seem to be any more records about it. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Artificial Intelligence Degree healthcare Data Science MCA Design Thinking Operations Management Finance Digital Marketing Leadership others CXO MBA Management Data Analytics Public Policy PGDM Cybersecurity Others Healthcare Project Management Data Science Product Management Technology Skills you'll gain: Duration: 7 Months S P Jain Institute of Management and Research CERT-SPJIMR Exec Cert Prog in AI for Biz India Starts on undefined Get Details According to Forbes, Humboldtine has only been found in about 30 places around the world, including some quarries and mines in Germany, Brazil, the UK, Canada, the US, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Italy. It is most commonly found as a yellow, amorphous mass, and it rarely forms tiny crystals. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Remember Him? Sit Down Before You See What He Looks Like Now 33 Bridges Undo What makes Humboldtian special The mineral is organic, a rare class whose crystal lattice holds carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen bound to metals, according to It is formed when carbon compounds and iron oxide react with water and is one of the few "organic minerals" containing carbon-oxygen-hydrogen groups in their crystalline structure. Live Events The mineral was first found in a weathered brown coal deposit near the municipality of Korozluky by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in the Okres Most in the Czech Republic. It was first described in 1821 by Peruvian geologist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz, who named it after Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and explorer from the 19th century. Von Humboldt had worked as a mining engineer and loved collecting minerals. Humboldtine hunt The 75-year-old letter written by a coal mine owner intrigued the archivists. While scanning shelves in Hof, they found the coal‑mine owner's note and the phrase 'Humboldtine from the Mathias mine near Schwandorf,' according to The team led by Eichhorn, head of the geological department at the LfU, decided to check the vast historic mineral collection comprising over 130,000 rock and mineral samples hosted in the agency's basement. If any samples were ever sent in, they still could be here. In one drawer of the systematic mineral collection, where minerals are ordered according to their chemical composition, they found some fragments of a yellow mineral labeled "Oxalit," German for organic minerals, still inside an old cardboard box. The label also showed that the samples came from the locality mentioned in the letter. If any samples were ever sent, they might still be present here. In a drawer of the systematic mineral collection, where minerals are sorted based on their chemical composition, they found pieces of a yellow mineral called "Oxalit," which is the German word for organic minerals, still in an old cardboard box. The label showed the samples were from the same place mentioned in the letter. The discovery, which was made 75 years ago, was confirmed by modern chemical analysis. The six fragments, the largest almost the size of a nut, are indeed Humboldtine. The Matthiaszeche, a former open-pit mine for brown coal, was closed in 1966 and subsequently flooded. There is no chance of getting any more Humboldtine from this locality.
Economic Times
17-07-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
75-year-old coal mine owner's letter leads to the discovery of one of Earth's rarest minerals
A 1949 letter, recently unearthed from the Bavarian Environment Agency's archive, has led to the rediscovery of Humboldtine samples. The letter indicated the mineral's presence in a coal mine near Schwandorf. This prompted a search that revealed forgotten fragments, now confirmed as Humboldtine, adding a new chapter to the mineral's history, despite the mine's closure. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads What makes Humboldtian special Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Humboldtine hunt A letter discovered in 2023 during the digitization of the archive of the Bavarian Environment Agency , or LFU, has rewritten a chapter of mineral history . The 1949 letter was written by a coal mine owner and sent to the agency; it mentions the Humboldtine , one of Earth's rarest minerals. The discovery of the misplaced letter in the government archive led the experts toward a shoebox of lemon‑yellow fragments that remained unnoticed for decades, according to geologist Roland Eichhorn of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) led the modern hunt that followed. Soon, his team learned they were staring at one of the scarcest minerals on the planet, Humboldtine. The letter stated that Humboldtine was found in coal seams at Matthiaszeche, near Schwandorf, a town on the Naab River in Upper Palatinate. The agency requested samples to check the discovery. But there don't seem to be any more records about to Forbes, Humboldtine has only been found in about 30 places around the world, including some quarries and mines in Germany, Brazil, the UK, Canada, the US, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Italy. It is most commonly found as a yellow, amorphous mass, and it rarely forms tiny mineral is organic, a rare class whose crystal lattice holds carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen bound to metals, according to It is formed when carbon compounds and iron oxide react with water and is one of the few "organic minerals" containing carbon-oxygen-hydrogen groups in their crystalline mineral was first found in a weathered brown coal deposit near the municipality of Korozluky by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in the Okres Most in the Czech Republic. It was first described in 1821 by Peruvian geologist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz, who named it after Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and explorer from the 19th century. Von Humboldt had worked as a mining engineer and loved collecting 75-year-old letter written by a coal mine owner intrigued the archivists. While scanning shelves in Hof, they found the coal‑mine owner's note and the phrase 'Humboldtine from the Mathias mine near Schwandorf,' according to The team led by Eichhorn, head of the geological department at the LfU, decided to check the vast historic mineral collection comprising over 130,000 rock and mineral samples hosted in the agency's any samples were ever sent in, they still could be here. In one drawer of the systematic mineral collection, where minerals are ordered according to their chemical composition, they found some fragments of a yellow mineral labeled "Oxalit," German for organic minerals, still inside an old cardboard box. The label also showed that the samples came from the locality mentioned in the any samples were ever sent, they might still be present here. In a drawer of the systematic mineral collection, where minerals are sorted based on their chemical composition, they found pieces of a yellow mineral called "Oxalit," which is the German word for organic minerals, still in an old cardboard label showed the samples were from the same place mentioned in the letter. The discovery, which was made 75 years ago, was confirmed by modern chemical analysis. The six fragments, the largest almost the size of a nut, are indeed Matthiaszeche, a former open-pit mine for brown coal, was closed in 1966 and subsequently flooded. There is no chance of getting any more Humboldtine from this locality.
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Is academic freedom a made-up concept?
In Satyajit Ray's 1980 satirical fantasy film Hirak Rajar Deshe, literally 'in the kingdom of the Diamond King', the education minister of the king dictates what should be taught in school. Finally, the minister closes the school. Is the story a true reflection of the contemporary world, to some extent? The nature of education and how it shapes society can be examined in a variety of contexts, from the fictional kingdom of the Diamond King to real-life Donald Trump's America. Given that Columbia, an Ivy League university, surrendered its academic freedom, and Harvard, the oldest and richest American university, has chosen to legally defend it, one would wonder what academic freedom is and what its scopes and limitations are. When then President Pranab Mukherjee spoke at the 'International Buddhist Conference' in Nalanda in 2017, he invoked Nalanda and Taxila, the ancient universities, to pitch for an atmosphere free from prejudice, anger, violence, and doctrines. 'It must be conducive to free flow intellectual persuasions,' he stated. A difficult path However, it's not so easy, always. Scholars who disagreed with church theology or behaved in ways the church deemed unacceptable risked persecution in medieval Europe. Then, philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt created a new university in Berlin in the early 19th century. The fundamental principles of academic freedom – freedom of scientific inquiry and the unification of research and teaching – were institutionalised in and diffused to other countries by the Humboldtian model of higher education. Today's seemingly made-up concept of academic freedom can be summed up as follows: students have the right to learn in an academic environment free from outside interference, and teachers have the right to instruct. The right of teachers to engage in social and political critique is another definition, though. In a 2022 paper published in the Houston Law Review, Yale Law School professor Keith E. Whittington stated that universities committed to truth-seeking and the advancement and dissemination of human knowledge essentially require 'robust protections for academic freedom for scholars and instructors.' Definition of freedoms At the UNESCO-organised International Conference in Nice in 1950, the Universities of the World pledged for 'the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to follow wherever the search for truth may lead.' Academic freedom was then defined as 'the freedom to conduct research, teach, speak, and publish, subject to the norms and standards of scholarly inquiry, without interference or penalty, wherever the search for truth and understanding may lead' at the first annual Global Colloquium of University Presidents held at Columbia University in 2005. But is defining and accomplishing academic freedom really that straightforward? Tenure, promotions, pay hikes, research funding, and academic honours are all intimately correlated with research publications in the current academic environment. Thus, today's scholars are driven by the peer pressure of publishing. And the interest of funding agencies has a significant impact on academicians' research. Nowadays, universities are also concerned with their international rankings, which are largely based on research papers. 'Publish or perish' culture How serious is today's 'publish or perish' culture? Quite a bit, indeed. One significant exception was 2013 Nobel laureate British physicist Peter Higgs, well known for the Higgs Boson. Higgs never published aggressively. He stated that he became 'an embarrassment to the department when they did research assessment exercises' and that he would have most likely been fired from his job at the University of Edinburgh if he had not been nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1980. However, he thought that because he would not be deemed 'productive' enough in today's academic system, no university would hire him. Thus, today's academic system doesn't even permit a future Nobel winner to peacefully conduct his own research without regularly generating research papers. Nowadays, there's little scope for leeway in a pre-scheduled framework of university curriculum. Furthermore, as American biologist Jerry Coyne put it, a geology teacher who casually informs his students that the earth is flat is not exercising academic freedom but rather is failing in his duties. Compared to general freedom of speech, academic freedom of speech is more limited. For instance, a non-academic can criticise the effectiveness of vaccines, but they can only do it with academic freedom if they have the necessary academic credentials. Academic perspectives are frequently subject to peer review, in contrast to public speeches. And, importantly, academic freedom may be as much as a country's politics and society at the time would have desired to offer academic institutions. For instance, several fields of research, including sociology and genetics, were outlawed as 'bourgeois pseudoscience' in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Checks and balances What's the freedom of a flying kite, indeed? When a kite is flying high, it means that the person holding the spool has just let it soar. Without the monarchs' generous financing and allowing foreign scholars and students, would ancient Nalanda or Taxila have been able to exercise their academic freedom? What happens if that person believes the kite is behaving strangely? Of course, a democracy has checks and balances, such as the judiciary and periodic elections. Therefore, academic freedom and political interference in it are continually being redefined by changing sociopolitical dynamics. Academic freedom certainly sets up a protective umbrella over scholars' activities; however, this protection is neither absolute nor guaranteed. As some powerful politicians still view universities as 'the enemy,' Hirak Rajar Deshe becomes a timeless doctrine that holds that education is more than just imparting knowledge; it's also about moulding souls, developing minds, and enabling people to think critically and behave morally. A university serves as a prism of enlightenment to the community it caters to. However, efforts to define a framework for acceptable academic freedom and to ensure it continue. (Atanu Biswas is Professor of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata)
