one more potential clue to the mystery of the crystal skull. Other tests showed that the skull was not only made from a single piece of natural quartz, but from ‘piezo-electric’ silicon dioxide, precisely the type of naturally occurring quartz that is so widely used in modern electronics.
As Jack explained, the piezo-electric properties of some kinds of quartz were only discovered towards the end of the nineteenth century by Marie Curie’s husband and brother-in-law, Pierre and Jacques Curie. Piezo is Greek, meaning ‘to squeeze’, and electrose means ‘to get a charge from’. The fact that the crystal skull is made from this type of quartz means that it actually has a positive and negative polarity, just like a battery. It also means that if you apply pressure to the skull, or ‘squeeze’ it, it is actually capable of generating electricity! Alternatively, if you apply an electric charge to the crystal skull it actually changes its shape, without in any way affecting its mass or density.
But, like all piezo-electric quartz, the crystal skull is anisotropic in this as well as every other respect, which is to say that all of its properties, other than its mass, are different in every direction. In the case of its electrical properties, its precise orientation is defined by its X–Y axis, in other words, it can carry an electric current, but only in six particular directions relative to this X-Y axis. In any other direction it acts as an insulator.
In the case of the crystal skull, the scientists found that it was ‘vertically piezo-electrically oriented’, which is to say that its X-Y axis runs directly through the centre of the skull, from top to bottom. This means that if you apply an electric charge to the top of the crystal skull, not only does its shape change in the process, but also the electric current passes from the very top of the skull’s head straight down to the Earth below. In the case of squeezing the skull to generate electricity, strangely enough, if you reverse the direction of pressure, the direction of electrical polarity in the crystal also reverses.
The Hewlett-Packard team also examined the skull’s unusual optical properties, such as its ability to channel light from below, so that it is focused out through the eye sockets. Apparently, this is only possible on account of the orientation of the skull’s optical axis, as quartz crystal has an optical as well as an electronic axis. What this means is that light actually travels quicker through the skull in one direction than another. Jack explained that not only was the skull able to perform these incredible tricks with normal multi-directional light, but also that if you shine directional, or polarized, light at the skull, not only does the light pass along its optical axis quicker than in any other direction, but the skull also actually rotates that light as it travels along its axis!
Another characteristic of the skull is that it is incredibly environmentally stable. This is another of the properties of piezo-electric silicon dioxide that makes it so invaluable for use in modern electronics. What it means is that the crystal skull is highly resistant to changes in the environment. It is particularly resistant to chemical changes. Most similar natural materials are slowly attacked by various chemicals, whether acids or even just plain water. The crystal skull, on the other hand, is resistant to chemicals. As Jack explained,
‘Quartz crystal is highly stable, physically, chemically and temperately, and whilst it does respond to light and to electricity, this is precisely what makes it so useful in electronics.’
For modern science has also established that one of the particularly unusual properties of piezo-electric quartz is that it can function as an excellent oscillator or resonator. Jack explained this as follows:
‘If a thin slice of crystal is cut parallel to its electronic axis and subjected to an alternating current, the crystal can be made to vibrate. The dimensions of the cut crystal are such that it will vibrate most strongly at the a.c. frequency that corresponds most closely to its own natural frequency. At this frequency, the mechanical motion of the crystal will reinforce the a.c. voltage.’
In other words, crystal, unlike other materials, has an amazing ability to hold electrical energy under control and to oscillate at a constant and precise frequency. This means that, in theory at least, the crystal skull may actually be able to hold electrical energy, potentially a form of information, and send out electrical impulses, or vibrating waves of information.
This ability to oscillate is yet another of the many unusual properties of this type of quartz that makes it so invaluable to the modern electronics industry. Its use in oscillator circuits for example, makes it vital to any piece of equipment where extremely accurate control of electronic frequencies is required. It is particularly important in precision electronics, especially in those instruments used for time-keeping. Indeed, quartz crystal is now found in almost every piece of precision time-keeping equipment from wristwatches to clocks. It is even used in the atomic clock, which is the most accurate clock in the world, the one by which all others are now measured. It is accurate to three seconds every million years (although its manufacturers only guarantee it for the first three years!) Quartz crystal is at the very forefront of scientific advance in this and every other respect. The atomic clock, for example, has been used to test Einstein’s theory that time actually travels more slowly as the speed of light is approached. This clock is also vital to research into measuring seismic (or earthquake) activity on distant planets. And the whole device is based on a simple quartz crystal.
But quartz is not only found in the most advanced time-keeping instrumentation, it is also vital to the fields of information technology, telecommunications and mass communication, not to mention navigational equipment, radar and sonar systems, and the latest medical and ultrasonic technology. Its incredible electrical properties mean that it is now found in all manner of electronic devices, from radios to computers, from terrestrial television systems to even the most advanced telecommunication satellites that now orbit the Earth in space. All of these use quartz crystals in one form or another. Even the vast information superhighway has only been possible thanks to recent developments in the field of crystal research and technology.
So the crystal today is at the very forefront of scientific advance. It lies at the very heart of the modern computer, electronics, telecommunications and mass communications industries. Indeed, the power of crystal has quite literally changed the face of society. We now live in a world where electronically-based information and communications are an everyday part of life, a world where even the time of day is determined electronically. We are able to communicate instantaneously with people maybe thousands of miles away and to store and retrieve vast quantities of information from all over the world quite literally at the touch of a button. Crystal has been at the core of probably one of the greatest technological revolutions the world has ever seen. We have become so dependent on all the devices containing quartz crystals that it is now even vital to our civilization.
Why had the crystal skull been made from precisely the type of quartz whose properties and potential we have only just begun to recognize?
Only since the beginning of the twentieth century have scientists begun to harness the incredible power of quartz crystal. So how was it that our ‘simple’ and ‘primitive’ ancestors had known to make the skull from precisely this type of material? Was it mere coincidence or could it be that they knew something we didn’t?
Could it be that the crystal skull really was some sort of store of information, just as the ancient legend had said? Could it really contain an important message from our ancestors? At first, this seemed very far-fetched. It was almost unbelievable that a simple lump of rock could contain the great secrets of our forefathers from way back in the mists of time. But, despite our initial scepticism, after our trip to Hewlett-Packard
