The wedding of the century...

The marriage of HRH Charles Windsor, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer was an international sensation. Watched by an estimated 750,000,000 people around the world, the wedding was the culmination of a fairy-tale in which an assistant kindergarten teacher became a princess overnight.

The tradition of preparing cake slices in this fashion goes back generations, as has the tradition of selling and collecting these literal slices of history. Over the years, more slices from Diana and Charles’ cake have been auctioned or otherwise sold off, small souvenirs from one of the most famous weddings in history.

This specimen is a fragment of the royal wedding cake, a traditional fruit cake with cream cheese frosting. It first appeared in the Third Edition of the Mini Museum, we are pleased to offer it once more as an individual item.

Take a look at these beautiful dendritic crystals...

Though they may look like fossil plants, dendrites are incredible and inorganic formations that occur solely due to interactions between physics and geochemistry. These branching patterns are made of manganese oxides and commonly form on the surface of sandstones. As the manganese cools, it crystalizes into thin, tree-like shapes in the same process that creates snowflakes.

Dendrite crystals often appear in sandstone or limestone. These porous rocks are perfect for manganese rich water to travel through, which deposits the mineral within the stone. The manganese then crystallizes well below its solidification point, due to a process called supercooling. The process occurs quite quickly and can cause the crystals to split off and grow outwards in thin branching patterns.

This specimen is a sandstone slab that has been imprinted with a manganese oxide dendrite in a branching pattern. 

Get a piece of meteorite from the Field of Heaven...

Thousands of years ago, a massive metal meteorite broke up over the skies of northern Argentina and rocketed to the ground. The impact was witnessed by local indigenous groups, many of whom lost their lives in the forest fires that followed. The story was recorded in their oral histories as a cosmic event, a tale that described the power of the stars.

This specimen is a complete Campo Del Cielo meteorite from Argentina. The IAB meteorite is thought to have fallen in 2500 BCE and was a source of valuable metals as well as an inspiration for creation myths. The impact area was originally called Piguem Nonralta by the locals, though Spanish colonists renamed it in 1576 CE as Campo del Cielo, or, "Field of Heaven."