The Beauty of Chemicals

Many pure substances in the laboratory are either dull, white powders or dull, coloured powders. If they are dissolved and allowed to crystallize slowly, their geometry becomes apparent to the naked eye, and light interacts with crystals far more elaborately. In nature's laboratory, impurities, heat, and pressure help convert compounds and elements into minerals. These new forms retain their basic ratios of bonded atoms, but as the philosopher Santayana would say, minerals now objectify pleasure---in other words, they become beautiful.
Here are a few examples:

	Mineral	Main Chemical Compound
Pic from http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20photos/M/marcasite2.jpg	Marcasite	FeS₂
Pic from Wikipedia.	Bornite	Cu₅FeS₄
Pic from http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/minerals/calcite.htm	Calcite	CaCO₃
Pic from http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/realgar.jpg	Realgar	AsS
Pic from author.	Amethyst	SiO₂
Pic from http://www.sedgwickmuseum.org/education/gallery.html	Sulfur	S
Pic from author.	Sucrose (not really a mineral but I formed this common organic compound by slow crystallization)	C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁