fandomhigh | Science Classroom; Tuesday [ 08/02 ].

So there it was. A large chunk of rock sitting in the middle of a laboratory classroom, waiting to be researched. Jane wasn’t entirely sure it wanted to be researched, though, with all the elusiveness and mystery it was giving off, but, then again, geology was hardly her area of scientific expertise, and she had a feeling it wasn’t quite Miss Granger’s forte either.

Thankfully, that was why they had their brilliant and inquisitive students to help, yes?

Goodness, she hoped so! Either way, a ~~handwavey~~ message had been sent out to the student body, encouraging anyone who was interested to come on in and help them out today.

“Hello, students,” she gave them a bit of an uncertain smile. “Thank you all for coming and giving us a hand with this most mysterious piece of rock. It’s so good to see so many of you eager to help, but Miss Granger and myself must ask you to take the utmost care. Clearly, we are uncertain what we are dealing with, so we must be careful.”

"Yes, please. I wish we had more information to give you," said Hermione, and don't think that wasn't bothering her. Of course, she'd also decided that if there was some strange mysterious rock that no one knew anything about, she was not going to be touching it unless it was absolutely necessary. At least without gloves. She knew that was probably just paranoia. "If there is anything you can tell us about it, don't hesitate to speak up."

“We’ve got gloves, microscopes, goggles, you name it,” Jane offered, “and also plenty of books for reference. Let’s use our resources and try to figure out what we can. Consider everything; even if you find something that’s just minutely interesting or different or strange, it could be useful.”

"Now, if anyone has any questions, we'll answer them as best we can," Hermione went on. "But let's get started and see what we can find, shall we?"

[[ written, obviously, with the fantastic

smartestone and for all you sciencey types; ~~please wait for~~ the OCD is ready for examination! ]]

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"... What?"

Well, it's not like he could see his face.

"You look like you think someone is going to make you lick it, Marshall," Scully said tolerantly. "Try to look beyond how the color makes your head hurt."

Marshall frowned a little more, but looked away, smoothing out his expression. "It's just. It..." He shrugged. "I don't know. It's kinda cool, but it's kinda... weird, too, isn't it?"

The moment passed, and Marshall's enthusiasm reasserted itself. "Not that weird is bad, of course! It's totally cool."

"It is!" Although it was unnerving to Scully a little too. But not in a way she wanted to think about too long. "What's your theory? Egg, meteorite, or cosmic shard?"

"I'm leaning towards meteorite," Marshall explained. "Acid reagent test showed Widmanstätten patterning. Of course, maybe it's an alien egg that acts like a meteorite? I'm sure there are bad movies about that."

"Oooo." Scully was diverted by this, and looking considering. "Possibly one that's just been extruded, and has been in the water table a while? That might explain the permeability."

"Would it?" Marshall asked. "There doesn't seem to be any water-based corrosion, only surface corrosion on exposure to something in the air. And it does seem to be metallic, so I wouldn't expect it to be porous and absorb water that way."

"Time to experiment!" Scully had already cut off a sliver for herself, marveling at how it reacted to air. "I'm checking its reactions to heat, first. Maybe you should check the acid and water reactions."

"Already done!" Marshall grabbed his notebook and flipped back a couple of pages. "Water, sodium hydroxide for a base, and aqua regia for an acid. No noticeable reactions with either water or base, acid inhibited the stone's natural exothermic reaction and brought out Widmanstätten patterning."

"Which means...?" Scully coxed, delighted.

"That the exothermic reaction is the result of interaction with a base?" Marshall suggested, and then, less a question: "And the Widmanstätten patterning means it's probably a meteorite."

"Yes!" Scully paused. "Although how old is the question. We really need soil samples from the site too, to get a geology layering comparison. And what brought it to the surface?"

Marshall gave her an odd look. "The island moving here." Wasn't that obvious?"

"Are we sure?" Scully asked, eyebrows up. "And if it is the case, was it just movement? Magnetic lines? Water pressure? Something in the time-frame?" She paused, grimacing. "Nowhere else would we have to consider time distortion as a cause for geologic variation."

"That's really not my area of expertise," Marshall admitted. "But I could make some calls to some friends back home, maybe, if you think it will help."

Lucas pretty much wrote the book on time-distortion-gravitational-effects.

"Without giving too much away, yes." Scully rubbed her hands together to get the circulation going again, science-obsession in full swing. "This is going to be amazing!"

"Going to be? It already is."

Marshall grinned and rolled out his shoulders. "Now let's do some more tests on this sucker and see what this sucker can do!"

Science Classroom; Tuesday [ 08/02 ].

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