Emily Brown
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emilycbrown.bsky.social
Emily Brown
@emilycbrown.bsky.social
550 followers 170 following 24 posts
Assistant Curator of Earth Systems at National Museums Scotland. Secretary and Trustee, Scottish Geology Trust. Gemmologist. Rock person. She/Her. All views are my own.
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emilycbrown.bsky.social
One day, my work lanyard will be wholly populated by crystal frogs and on that day I may rest.
Two enamel pins on a lanyard. Both depict frogs surrounded by crystals, one orange with red crystals, one black with pale blue crystals.
June 3, 2025 at 6:21 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
❤️
A colourless quartz crystal grown around a white feldspar crystal. Cartoon faces and arms have been drawn on the crystals to imply that they are hugging. Slightly melancholy.
February 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
Prehnite baffles me as a gemstone.
An odd snot green with a very hazy, cloudy appearance.
Yet it’s oddly alluring? Would wear it in earrings for sure.

📸 A selection of faceted Scottish prehnite #MineralMonday
A selection of faceted prehnite. The gemstones are a variety of shapes and sizes, most being oval or teardrop-shaped. All are a pale green-yellow colour with a hazy interior and a vitreous lustre.
January 27, 2025 at 8:45 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
I’m JUST on the Craigleith sandstone, lovely Carboniferous rock that most of the Edinburgh New Town was built from.
A geological map showing alternating curved bands of different rock types. The Craigleith sandstone is depicted in a green-brown colour, the Gullane formation in a yellow-green. A description of the rock type reads “bedrock geology. Craigleith sandstone - sandstone. Sedimentary bedrock formed between 337 and 330.9 million years ago during the Carboniferous period.
January 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
Do we think it’s real guys? 😂
#minerals
A mineral specimen in a black box. The specimen is supported on all sides by blocks of black plastozote foam. There is a label at the top left of the box that gives the museum registration number (1970.5.168) and reads “gypsum and anhydride, from locality unknown (is this a natural mineral)”. The mineral itself is a mass of blocky rectangles reminiscent of stacked lego bricks. It is a pale pink in colour. A close up of a mineral specimen. It is a mass of pale pink crystals, elongate rectangular prisms that are cleaved along their length. Very unusual for what purports to be gypsum.
January 8, 2025 at 10:17 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
The perfect package to receive on #MineralMonday -my new new work mug 😁
A white mug with a printed image. The phrase “have you tried licking it?” is in the centre of the printed portion and is surrounded by illustrations of minerals, which are mostly obscured by the curve of the mug. The printed portion is delineated by a pale pink background. Illustrations of minerals on a pink background, printed on a white mug. Minerals include red crystals of lorándite, yellow fibrous crystals labelled arsenolite, green tablular torbernite and a mass of grey otavite crystals. All these minerals are toxic and shouldn’t be licked. Illustrations of minerals on a pink background, printed on a white mug. Minerals include an orange crystal of lópezite, silver globules of mercury on red cinnabar, and a mass of blue fibrous chalcanthite crystals. All these minerals are toxic and shouldn’t be licked.
January 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
Radioactive minerals have two modes:

1) Ooh! Pretty! Want to taste
2) Dull as heck, lulling you into a false sense of security

Both are dirty tricks designed to kill.

📷 Curite from Katanga DRC and coffinite from Arizona, USA
A mineral specimen on a white table. The specimen is craggy with a powdery texture. The top is bright orange which grades down to a blue-green at the base. In the background is a box wrapped in “hazard radiation” yellow and black tape. A seemingly dull, uninteresting grey-brown rock. The rock has fractured into angular planes and the surface has a gritty texture.
December 17, 2024 at 7:21 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
We’ve been getting into the festive spirit at NMCC

Merry Quartzmas everyone
A large crystal of colourless quartz, mounted in a cement block, painted black. The crystal is wrapped in green and gold tinsel and a snowflake ornament is perched on top, like it is a Christmas tree.
December 4, 2024 at 3:05 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
Petrified hedgehog found today in our sinter collection 😉
A spiky concave crust of silicate sinter, held in a hand. Overtop has been drawn a cartoon of a hedgehog, with the sinter crust as the spiky back.
November 27, 2024 at 6:12 PM
emilycbrown.bsky.social
Jaunt up to Montrose Museum today looking for radioactive specimens.
No spicy minerals, just some mildly spicy fossil fish ☢️
An open wooden drawer containing many fossil fish. The fish are black on brown slabs of rock, most with paper labels stuck to them. The fossils are housed in card trays and are stacked on top of each other. The drawer is very full. A hand holds the detector of a Geiger counter on a fossil fish. The Geiger counter reads 7 counts per second on its dial. The fish is black with white efflorescence on its surface, and is in a grey slate matrix.
November 25, 2024 at 4:26 PM