The hardest natural material — pure carbon locked in a cubic lattice

The structure inside every grain of table salt

The face-centred cubic structure of the most coveted metal on Earth

The soft, layered form of carbon in every pencil — and cousin to graphene

One of Earth's most abundant minerals — the crystal in your watch and your windowsill

The crystal structure powering next-generation solar cells

The glittering iron sulfide crystal that fooled gold prospectors for centuries

The glassy, vividly coloured mineral that gave fluorescence its name

The everyday crystal that covers polar caps and fills your glass

A brilliant gemstone prized for its golden and blue hues

The lustrous precious metal — face-centred cubic, the most stable form

The soft, layered form of carbon in every pencil — and a cousin of diamond

The soft, layered form of carbon in every pencil — and a cousin of diamond

The warm-toned metal that has wired human civilisation for thousands of years

The slippery form of carbon in every pencil — flat sheets stacked in perfect layers

A vivid deep-blue copper mineral used as a pigment by Renaissance painters

A landmark ferroelectric crystal that changed the electronics industry

A diamond-like form of carbon found inside meteorites — rarer than diamond itself

The vivid green copper mineral prized as a gemstone and pigment for thousands of years

The mineral that gives white paint its brightness — and colours some gemstones

The crystal structure that powers every computer chip and solar panel

The crumbling, non-metallic form of tin — infamous for destroying Napoleon's army buttons

The vivid red ore of mercury, prized as a pigment for millennia

The metal behind those rainbow-coloured hopper crystals beloved by collectors