Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Gypsum

Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why gypsum is secretly incredibly fascinating. Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week's bonus episode.

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

• Katie Goldin on Bluesky
• @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
• 'Creature Feature' podcast (iHeartRadio)
• When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE'S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• "Finding Lenapehoking" (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Naica’s crystal cave captivates chemists (Chemical & Engineering News)
• Common Minerals: Gypsum (University Of Minnesota)
• National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory: Fact Sheet: Gypsum (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
• Minerals: Gypsum -- selenite (Ohio Department of Natural Resources)
• Gypsum: an old product with a new use (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach)
• Versatile Gypsum Minerals (Rock & Gem Magazine)
• White Sands National Park: Geology: Gypsum (U.S. National Park Service)
• Desert Rose: Crystals, Types, and Where to Found it (GeologyIn.com)
• Gypsum Flowers (National Speleological Society)
• This Mexican Mineral Looks Like a Shimmering Serpent (Atlas Obscura)
• Online Etymology Dictionary entries for "gypsum" and "gypsy"
• Gypsum Conservation (Knossos Scientific Committee)
• An Exciting History of Drywall (The Atlantic)
• Augustine Sackett (National Inventors Hall Of Fame)
• How the Paris Catacombs Solved a Cemetery Crisis (JStor Daily)
• The man who saved Paris from sinking (Radio France Internationale)
• Parts of Paris, Built Over Old Gy psum Quarries, Are Sinking (The New York Times)
• The geology of Paris (Geo-Sports.org)
• Plaster of Paris–Short History of Casting and Injured Limb Immobilzation (Open Orthopaedics Journal)
• Chilean gypsum could help us find biosignatures on Mars (Astronomy Magazine)
• This Desert Crystal Keeps Organisms Alive for Eons. It Could Be Key to Finding Extraterrestrial Life. (Popular Mechanics)
• Gypsum on Earth and Mars (NASA)
• Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 (The Canadian Historical Review)
• 200 years ago, anti-American sentiment may have caused eagles at N.S. Legislature to lose their heads (CBC News)
• Object: The Main Question (Smithsonian National Museum of American History)
• Plaster War of 1820 (Mining Association of Nova Scotia)
• Nova Scotia’s unique gypsum karst: An interview with Sean Blaney (Nova Scotia Nature Trust)
• Maine's Border Treaty (Maine State Archives)
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Salt
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Popcorn Ceilings