Nature has a lot to offer to humans. Most precious jewelry is made from metals and stones buried deep within the Earth’s surface but the discovery of these rare jewels is not just limited to land. The ...

For centuries, researchers have puzzled over how oysters grow stunningly symmetrical, perfectly round pearls around irregularly shaped grains of sand or bits of debris. Now a team has shown that ...

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NEW YORK — The luster of Queen Victoria’s brooch, Marilyn Monroe’s necklace and Elizabeth Taylor’s pear-shaped gem won’t soon fade. But researchers at the American Museum of Natural History hope their ...

A guide to the different types of pearls and where they come from: Natural versus cultured pearls: The life of the natural pearl begins when a foreign object such as a parasite or piece of shell ...

There are three types of pearls: natural, cultured and imitation. Natural pearls are created as a spontaneous response to a naturally occurring irritant in a mollusk. The mollusk makes the pearl by ...

The rivers of northeast Arkansas once teemed with freshwater mollusks capable of producing pearls, which led to a huge "pearl rush" in the region in the late 1800s. The mussels had not been harvested ...

"Pearls: A Natural History Lecture" is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, March 15, in the Little Theatre of the Midland Center for the Arts. Dr. Paula M. Mikkelsen, of the American Museum of Natural ...

Looking for that romantic something to give your Valentine? How about some nice pearls? Well, maybe not “La Peregrina“ ("The Incomparable”), a giant pearl found off the coast of Panama around 1510.

South Dakota native John Latendresse was on a cross-country road trip in 1949 when he found himself at Kentucky Lake in Tennessee. Looking out at the divers combing the fertile lakebeds for mussels to ...

Pearls, in all their sophistication and simplicity, are a timeless accessory. Recently, pearls have become embraced by high-profile trendsetters as this year’s essential accessory. Strands of pearls ...