A question from a 6-year-old boy from Sweden
Are crystals alive? At least I know they don’t have legs but are they alive?
What a good question! Living things, like plants and animals, need to eat, breathe, move, and grow. Crystals are like really sparkly rocks that are made when tiny bits stick together over time, kind of like how building blocks join to make a tower. They become shiny and pretty without needing food or anything else like plants and animals do.
Science doesn't think crystals are alive, but they're still super cool! Some people think they have magic powers that can make us feel things, but scientists are still checking if that's true.
Scientists have found out about lots of different living things that they didn't know about before or didn't understand how important they were. This helps us learn more about life and how it works. Bacteria and viruses were discovered only after scientists invented powerful microscopes. They can affect our health a lot! Another example is something called mycorrhizal fungi, which work together with plant roots. They help each other out, making plants grow better and fight off sickness, showing how different living things help each other out in nature.
Scientists might not have the right tools yet to find life in crystals. But as science gets better and we learn more, we might discover new things we never knew about before! Like how we only found out about tiny things like bacteria and viruses after we had better tools. So, maybe one day we'll have gadgets that can find life in crystals, even if we can't do it now.