EIGHTH-GRADER UNCOVERS INTERNATIONAL MINERAL SCANDAL.

The article focuses on eighth-grader Jessice Simonoff whose paper uncovered an international mineral scandal in a batch of skeletal galenas from Bulgaria. Simonoff and co-author Lance Kearns of the James Madison University (JMU) museum examined the galenas through the basic test of sniffing and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It also notes the use of energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer for identifying the chemical structure and analyzing the chemical composition of the surface which were identified by Kearns as glass beads for making the fakes.