Gems are among the most gorgeous examples of nature at work, even though the jewels we admire get a helping hand not afforded to phenomena like sunsets and snow-capped peaks.
When we imagine gemstones, few of us picture hunks of rough minerals formed when the Earth's core was a swirling grab bag of gases. Instead, it's polished, faceted little dazzlers set in jewelry that we have in our mind's eye -- even though they may have been heat-treated, dyed, irradiated, laser-drilled, oiled and fracture-filled to produce greater color saturation, clarity and weight. And even if we don't get excited by such images, people expecting gifts from us this holiday season certainly might.
Apart from geologists, few people would consider gemstones in their natural state to be particularly beautiful -- though ideas of what is "natural" and "unnatural" are not entirely clear-cut. After all, even a gemstone merely extracted from its host rock could be considered "unnatural."