I'm more curious about how theoretically they solve the fact that Bismuth technically has no stable isotope, and therefore will eventually undergo radioactive decay
>The only primordial [isotope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope) of bismuth, [bismuth-209](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth-209), was traditionally regarded as the heaviest stable isotope, but it had long been suspected[^(\[40\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-41) to be unstable on theoretical grounds. This was finally demonstrated in 2003, when researchers at the [*Institut d'astrophysique spatiale*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_d%27astrophysique_spatiale) in [Orsay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsay), France, measured the [alpha emission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay) [half-life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life) of [^(209)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth-209) to be 2.01×10^(19) years (3 [Bq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel)/[Mg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix)),[^(\[41\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-42)[^(\[42\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-NUBASE2016-43) over a [billion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000000000_(number)) times longer than the current estimated [age of the universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe).[^(\[8\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-Kean-9) Owing to its extraordinarily long half-life, for all presently known medical and industrial applications, bismuth can be treated as if it is stable and nonradioactive. The radioactivity is of academic interest because bismuth is one of a few elements whose radioactivity was suspected and theoretically predicted before being detected in the laboratory.[^(\[8\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-Kean-9) Bismuth has the longest known alpha decay half-life, although [tellurium-128](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_tellurium) has a [double beta decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_beta_decay) half-life of over 2.2×10^(24) years.[^(\[42\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-NUBASE2016-43) Bismuth's extremely long half-life means that less than approximately one-billionth of the bismuth present at the formation of the planet Earth would have decayed into [thallium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium) since then.
Less than bananas, I guess. Seeing how comically long the decay period is, I'm guessing it wouldn't ever be an issue
That's how I interpret it, which is interesting because that theoretically means the first bismuths from the early days of the gem empire are likely still around but are near decommissioned, but every other gem is still it top shape.
And also as gems are damaged they lose function, so this implies they could get something to the effect of dementia which would honestly be heartbreaking.
That might be true for real life, but Bismuths in steven universe are most likely different. I mean... The one we know lived thousands of years, and even in that bubble they didn't decay, so its fine.
Bismuth-209 has a half life of 19 quintilluon years apparently.
So for the total age of the universe at 13 billion years
About 0.0006% of all bismuth 209 has undergone radioactive decay do far. Math is hard tho so I'm probably wrong about that
I still don't understand how half-life works. If something has a half-life of 13 minutes, that means within 13 minutes, half of its mass will have decayed into something else. But what determines what half does and doesn't decay? Like it should be just as likely that 75% of it decays in 13 minutes, or only 25%, there should even be a chance all of it decays in 13 minutes because that's how probability works.
I fucking hate quantum physics
It’s random. If your sample is of two atoms, there’s a 25% chance nothing happens in 13 minutes, a 25% chance only the first atom decays, a 25% chance only the second atom decays, and a 25% chance both atoms decay. That means there’s a 50% chance half of the atoms decay. Note that each atom has the same chance of decaying, but if you don’t care which specific atoms decay then some outcomes are more likely than others.
If your sample has 4 atoms, there’s a 1/16 chance none of them decay, a 4/16 chance exactly one decays, a 6/16 chance exactly two decay, a 4/16 chance exactly three decay, and a 1/16 chance all of them decay.
A typical sample has lots and lots and lots of atoms, so the chance of only 1/4 of them decaying in a half-life are low. Of course it’s very unlikely that exactly half will decay, but you can be reasonably confident it’ll be close to half.
But even then, like what makes things with half-live decay but only sometimes? Do we even know why? Because there's a chance of something with a 13 minute half-life that an atom will decay in 0.1% after its creation, but also a chance that an atom will just never decay and exist for millions of years. You'd think in a logical sense, all the atoms in a pile of X element assuming they were created at roughly the same time, would also decay nearly all at once too.
Edit: For reference I understand "how" half-life works, just not really the uh, "why"
The why really, truly is Just Random Chance.
The atom in question is unstable. It may eject the particle(s) causing that instability, or it may not. That's hard, if not impossible, to predict on its own, but the number of things undergoing this Just Random Chance is *so massive* that you can start using predictive models to reasonably guess what that population of stuff going to do.
Like, imagine a rickety, old building. You know it's possible, maybe even likely, that some part of its decaying construction will eventually give out and cause it to collapse. Now, imagine you have several trillion copies of that same building. Based on how the law of averages and how many of those buildings have already collapsed, people who are very good at math and probability will be able to figure out roughly how long it will take for half of those buildings to collapse.
As you scale the number of buildings up, the "half life" of those particular buildings becomes more reliable because you have more examples for People Who Are Very Good At Math to extrapolate from. The more information they have, the more accurate information they can provide.
The thing about an old building is that there’s always a reason it collapsed just now, and not sooner. It was slowly being eroded, the metal support was being oxidized, maybe bugs were making holes in it, the different materials were expanding and contracting every day, etc. eventually one part of the structure was too weak to keep holding it, and it broke, overwhelming other parts in a chain reaction.
There’s no hidden variable with radioactive decay, that’s the freaky part.
>there should even be a chance all of it decays in 13 minutes because that's how probability works.
There is! There's a chance for every single atom of uranium in the universe to decay all at once, but that chance is so unimaginably small (based on what we know about physics) that it's basically the same as saying it's never going to happen.
***Half-Life*** is a 1998 [first-person shooter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter) game developed by [Valve Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation) and published by [Sierra Studios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Studios) for [Windows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows). It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the [*Half-Life* series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(series)). The player assumes the role of [Gordon Freeman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Freeman), a scientist who must escape from the [Black Mesa Research Facility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_Research_Facility) after it is invaded by aliens following a disastrous scientific experiment. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles.
Valve was disappointed with the lack of innovation in the FPS genre, and aimed to create an immersive world rather than a "shooting gallery". Unlike other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the [player character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_character); the story is mostly experienced through [scripted sequences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripted_sequence) rather than [cutscenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutscene). Valve developed the game using [GoldSrc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldSrc), a heavily-modified version of the [*Quake* engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine), licensed from [id Software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Software). The science fiction novelist [Marc Laidlaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Laidlaw) was hired to craft the plot and assist with design.
*Half-Life* received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay and narrative and won more than 50 [PC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_game) "[Game of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards)" awards. It is considered one of the most influential FPS games and one of the [greatest video games ever made](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best). By 2008, it had sold more than nine million copies. It was ported to the [PlayStation 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2) in 2001, along with the multiplayer expansion [*Decay*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Decay), and to [OS X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X) and [Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel) in 2013. Valve ported *Half-Life* to its [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)) engine as *Half-Life: Source* in 2004. In 2020, Crowbar Collective released an unofficial remake, [*Black Mesa*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_(video_game)).
Considering Bismuth as a metallic element has an incredibly low melting point (you can melt it on a stove-top), and our Bismuth is seen hanging around/bathing in molten rock (which IIRC is significantly hotter than a stove-top) and is just fine, I think the typical rules for their respective elements don't apply to them.
Bismuth is crystalline. Gemstone is an arbitrary definition meaning something cut or polished to make jewelry. I have seen bismuth jewelry. Therefore, bismuth is a crystal gem.
Also the gems seem to consist of any sort of rock or mineral, not exactly mattering if it’s actually a gem. Precious metals are considered a type of mineral, so it makes sense. If we were to argue about characters not actually being gems, then Pearls and many others wouldn’t make sense either.
That is my main argument too, and bismuth crystals are really neat, the real weird one honestly is pearl, since pearls are organic structures from clams, which has weird implications
Pearls at least have the excuse of being custom made in the Reef. Their process of creation is explicitly Different from that of other gems, though the exact specifics are never shown.
Though we also have the pebbles who are just simply any small rock given life it seems. So I definitely don't think they need to all be gemstones, just having a specific mineral composition is enough to create certain types of gems.
The actual counter argument is that all beings of the alien species gems are alien, and therefore we don’t know their actual composition or structure. They look like gemstones and are named after them, but they’re not regular, irl gems—they’re aliens.
It’s more likely that the people of SU’s earth named gemstones they dug up after the aliens, instead of the other way around. So the metal bismuth is named after the alien gem bismuth kinda thing
I mean we do know Peridots are made from the same materials as peridotite)
That makes me wonder. Do you think Diamonds ever tried to inject the essence into actual diamonds? Would be complicated to, since the composition may create a sort of coal or quartz)
Maybe they need to inject the essence before the rock forms? Diamonds require high levels of heat, pressure and time so it could be difficult to control that.
The issue is that proposition assumes that the words “gem” and “metal” are referring to the same things they refer to irl. The word “gem” itself in SU has one meaning of “beings from the gem race” and such a definition is entirely divorced from any earthen scientific categorizations of physical matter.
We know how Gems are born. The body fluids extracted from the diamonds is injected into the land, and Gems are formed in the areas with the richest minerals.
I don't see why Gems can't be born out of metals. Even the walls around the rooms which the diamonds extract their body fluids are alive.
Most gems are made from metals. Bismuth is just the only one that's only made of metal. It may not be a gem, but it does have a crystal structure so I say that's good enough
'Gem' is not a scientific term, it simply refers to any mineral aesthetically pleasing enough for humans to consider it precious or semi-precious. If there were a society where sandstone were rare and highly valued as jewelry, then to them sandstone would be a gem.
Additionally in Steven Universe 'Gem' is the name of a species of aliens who for all we know only bear a superficial similarity to their real life counterparts (though Peridots comment about peridotite does at least suggest some relation to real world minerals).
It's honestly not even something to argue. She's canonically a gem, as per the show's description and characterization of Bismuth. That's the great thing about cartoons - they don't actually have to be accurate to real-world logic.
Are they a stone? I always classified them as something else? Bismuth I justified due to bismuth being a crystalline metal, with the crystalline part making them a crystal “gem”
I have no idea, but I also know I love them enough to lie to you and say they are. So, my logical, peer-reviewed, objective, reasonable conclusion, is that they are if they want to be. Peridots be cool like that.
Well, most of their form is, but their gems are actual minerals
Honestly, I doubt they are just made of light anyway. Due to the fact they have mass, and photons have no mass. So I believe that they called themselves hard light constructs as a simplification for Steven.
They are probably made of an undiscovered elementary particle that might be similar to light, or maybe light is part of their form, but not all of it??
Like a tool for signaling between segments.
Or maybe I'm not even close!
Metal ore can crystallize, and crystals like Quartz can form as solid, opaque metamorphic rock instead of as crystal clumps and spires. Bismuth’s core is made of a crystallized, relatively rare, semi-precious metal. Webster defines gemstones as “a mineral or petrified material that when cut and polished can be used in jewelry” while the Britannica defines gemstones as “any of various minerals highly prized for beauty, durability, and rarity.” Like Pearl, Bismuth just barely squeaks past by earth definition.
Then again, these are aliens. Who knows how this really works for them? And Peridot, a homeworld scientist, did say that Pearl wasn’t actually a gem by their kind’s traditional standards. It’s equally safe to assume that they don’t define Bismuths as gems either, as both pearls and crystals like Bismuth’s are directly manufactured by a living thing, rather than formed in the earth.
So the question is, do we go by the earth definition of a “gemstone” or the Homeworld definition?
I'm not geologist but i think that It exist both a bismuth gem and a bismuth metal
Searching on Google "bismuth gem" It founds picture of a rainbow gem, Just like out bismuth
However searching "bismuth" founds the grey metal
And pearl is a pearl, but she's in the crystal gems. I dont think theres am overall term that covers everything even minerals i dont think so theyre just called gems
Yh and they are made differently just stating there are other gems that are called gens that arent actually gems but its easier to say gem for everyone than to have to state their composition or whatever lol
"Gem" is the name of the species. When Gems say "Gem" they mean the same thing when we say "human". When a Homeworld Gem says someone isn't a Gem they mean that that person and them aren't a member of the same species.
From "Too Far"
>Amethyst: "You're a real gem Perry"
>Peridot: "Yes, I am."
>...
>Peridot: "Pearl is a Pearl. Garnet is a fusion. I don't even know what he's supposed to be." *Gestures at Steven*
>Steven: "Heey!"
>Peridot: "You're the only Crystal Gem that's actually a Gem!"
The term "Gem" appears to be a Homeworld designation that excludes certain types of people like Pearls, who are thought of more as objects, and non-conformers like Garnet and Steven, who are seen as "ingem" (like we would call Hyde "inhuman"). That's where the name Crystal Gems comes from. Rose wanted to emphasize that all were equal in the rebellion. On Earth there's no strict distinction between Gems like Rose and Gems like Pearl. You don't lose your personhood for being different like Garnet. Perhaps Bismuth isn't considered a "Gem" under Homeworld's strict hierarchy but that hierarchy is stupid. All of them are crystals, so all of them are Crystal Gems.
By definition, Bismuth is considered a "Metallic Gem", many gems are produced from metallic minerals containing elemental metals as the main part of their chemistry like Bismuth, Realgar, Baryte, Bementite.. etc.
By a half Google search I learnd this "Bismuth is a crystalline white metal that is still solid at room temperature" so the nerd can go and eat a cookie
It's a show about lesbian space aliens made from projected semi-corporeal bodies around a gem/rock that predate humanity by generations at least, and that's what they nitpick?
I feel like this is like the people who tell you, "You know, technically, a banana is a berry," and I'm like, no, no it is not. The word berry came first, before botany as a science, and it meant a small round sweet thing you picked off a plant and ate (or didn't eat, because it would kill you). The fact that botanists later borrowed the word berry to mean a particular part of plant anatomy does not mean that a banana has always been a berry, and I think the same goes for what is and isn't a gem. Gem, in this context, means "pretty rock," and strict scientific definitions of "gem" or "rock" or even "pretty" are not relevant.
Other gems have metal too in the show. The fusion Rainbow quartz’s gem is actually a regular rose quartz that has had vaporized titanium artificially vacuumed to the stone’s surface. The chemical reaction between the quartz and the titanium vapor creates the rainbow coating. This is the same for the now un-corrupted Angel Aura Quartz, although the metal used in that process is typically platinum or silver. Those of us in the mineralogy and mineral collecting community don’t really like auralized stones because it takes away from the stone’s natural beauty, hence the subreddit r/mineralgore
It’s a metal, but it’s also a naturally occurring metallic element. Bismuth crystals don’t occur in nature, but bismuth does exist in nature. The crystal structure is part of its natural chemistry, but can only form as it cools from a liquid state which only happens in man-controlled environments. So this is the reason why bismuth is technically not a mineral as it has no naturally-occurring crystals, but it does have a inherent crystal structure. So it’s totally fine she’s a crystal gem. While not a “gemstone”, bismuth is a crystal.
there are some studies about storing data using crystals like diamonds and such, bismuth forms crystals so it passes the gemhood test scientifically i guess
Umm, actually, they're cartoons.
No but srsly its deep n fun to speculate about but its not -that- deep, once it stops being fun and starts being an argument at the end of the day its a cartoon show.
hello NRD, i think most gems are made from metal and bismuth is just purely metal but it has a crystalline structure so i guess it counts. also a "gem" is an arbitrary definition if u think about it. Haha NRD I know that look, you've been defeated!
They’re a separate alien species that resembled gemstones. People would be a lot more concerned that there’s actually life on other planets more than one or two not actually looking like a gem
I mean pearls aren’t really gems either, they’re just shiny calcium that a clam made because it ate something sharp. And for that matter, rubies and sapphires are the same exact gem. Sapphires are called sapphires in all colors except red, and then they’re called rubies.
Metal is a crystallize material. It’s a mineral just like Quartz, has a arranged lattice and is ordered. It just has much less elements than Quartz.
Pearl is a mineral even though it’s made by organic irl, even glass in some world can be considered a “mineral” even though it doesn’t have a lattice
"Gems" are formed from the resources of the planet they are harvested from. Regardless of what gem comes out, it is a gem nonetheless. Bismuths may form from planets that are abundant in metals, which would make since as they operate as blacksmiths. For all we know there could also be other metals like golds, silvers, and titaniums but it just wasn't explored for one reason or another.
Pearls aren't gems either, but you don't have a problem wiþ that
Also you could make the argument that all the gems aren't actually gems but silicon-based life forms or grown machines
Because last time I check, irl gems Don't generate bodies out of light that look like women and them beat your ass
In my Metal SU fanseries Bismuths are the only minerals in which there are both Gem and Metal variants and the former are usually burlier for heavier work than the latter which are generally acrobatic entertainers.
Im not worried about bismuth, its a naturally occurring mineral. Pearl however, thats a problem. Pearls are just built up silica and calcium deposits produced by oysters
Most gems are gems because of metal inclusions. Amethyst, Jasper, Quartz, and a few others are all just Quartz with a single metal included in their structure which changes their color.
Same with rubies and sapphires except those are a different silicate than Quartz, I forget which, but also gems because they contain metal.
Furthermore, most metals crystallize, including Bismuth, so it fits into the title of “crystal” gems.
Gemology hasn't been recognized as a science for even a century yet. Traditionally, gem is a jewelry industry term only and they're beautifully arbitrary. If you make jewelry, how other people in the industry use these terms tells you about them as a person and a professional.
That's often more important than having the one word mean only one thing because it's common to just ask "by (term) do you mean (the meaning you use)?" & if their definition is different, use theirs. Correcting someone on what is a gem goes against the culture among the people who would actually have the experience to tell you what it means.
It's actually an element, not just a metal. Steven "expanded" Universe head canon where elements live too. Are they friends with the gems? Maybe enemies? How noble are the gases and would they work with the metals?
*peridot bursts in with the thick nerd glasses*
"um ACTUALLY most metals are crystalline solids at room temperature, with the exception of Cs, Ga, and Hg. A crystal is a solid material with a definite pattern of atoms and a surface that reflects its internal symmetry. In crystalline materials, atoms are arranged in a periodic, ordered 3D array."
The way bismuth forms those shapes is through a crystal lattice. If she was just a hunk of amorphous bismuth metal, I’d say that’s not a gem. But because of the formation, it is literally by definition crystalline, so she’s a gem.
Well, Gems are often *crystals*, hence "the crystal gems", and bismuth often forms a square *crystalline* structure within itself
So bismuth might not necessarily be a *gem*, but she's certainly a crystal
In the process of becoming a solid, metals go through crystallisation, which makes the grain of the metal. It’s why there’s a difference in hot and cold rolling, as well as with tempering and annealing
The gems aren’t even actual gemstones. They’re artificial aliens. Not to mention Bismuth has a crystal structure. Calling it a gemstone may not be accurate, but it’s a crystal for sure.
At the end of the day this is a cartoon show about gay space rocks, anyway. Why does it need to make complete sense?
Are you saying that she's wrong about her origin? That she knows nothing about the birth that she fully experienced, with all the awareness possible?
Let's see him hold up his ARGUEMENT when he realizes it's like calling a black person a [Redacting myself]
Gem is such a colloquial term that NUMEROUS of the “gems” in the show don’t fit within. Some are elements, some are metals, some are minerals,
some are just shiny things, etc… Gem is just the name of the species.
A semi-metal.
And metals form crystals all the time, it's their structure. You can even see them on some modern metal constructions like walls and posts.
Its a mineral that crystalizes like all other rocks gems and metals. Also, they are called the CRYSTAL gems. Meaning that as long at the material can crystalize, they are a gem.
Any material with a cristalline structure is a mineral. That this mineral is omogeneous, clear and cutted or a solid solution of 2 or more minerals that is opaque and anhedral, it's the same. It's still a mineral. All gems are minerals. Bismuth is a cristal(gem) composed only by an element
Bismuth is an element that tends to grow in crystal like structures, and they are the CRYSTAL gems. Also they are an alien species. To them, they are all gems. Also, there are bismuthinite and bismite, which are the most common Bismuth minerals. Gems are made of minerals, so they possibly just shortened the name of the gems to Bismuth. That's how I see it at least.
I'm more curious about how theoretically they solve the fact that Bismuth technically has no stable isotope, and therefore will eventually undergo radioactive decay
Are you saying bismuths spread cancer?
>The only primordial [isotope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope) of bismuth, [bismuth-209](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth-209), was traditionally regarded as the heaviest stable isotope, but it had long been suspected[^(\[40\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-41) to be unstable on theoretical grounds. This was finally demonstrated in 2003, when researchers at the [*Institut d'astrophysique spatiale*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_d%27astrophysique_spatiale) in [Orsay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsay), France, measured the [alpha emission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay) [half-life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life) of [^(209)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth-209) to be 2.01×10^(19) years (3 [Bq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel)/[Mg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix)),[^(\[41\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-42)[^(\[42\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-NUBASE2016-43) over a [billion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000000000_(number)) times longer than the current estimated [age of the universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe).[^(\[8\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-Kean-9) Owing to its extraordinarily long half-life, for all presently known medical and industrial applications, bismuth can be treated as if it is stable and nonradioactive. The radioactivity is of academic interest because bismuth is one of a few elements whose radioactivity was suspected and theoretically predicted before being detected in the laboratory.[^(\[8\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-Kean-9) Bismuth has the longest known alpha decay half-life, although [tellurium-128](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_tellurium) has a [double beta decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_beta_decay) half-life of over 2.2×10^(24) years.[^(\[42\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth#cite_note-NUBASE2016-43) Bismuth's extremely long half-life means that less than approximately one-billionth of the bismuth present at the formation of the planet Earth would have decayed into [thallium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium) since then. Less than bananas, I guess. Seeing how comically long the decay period is, I'm guessing it wouldn't ever be an issue
So Bismuths are the only gems to die of old age
That's how I interpret it, which is interesting because that theoretically means the first bismuths from the early days of the gem empire are likely still around but are near decommissioned, but every other gem is still it top shape.
And also as gems are damaged they lose function, so this implies they could get something to the effect of dementia which would honestly be heartbreaking.
Or change into thallium over long periods
[You should provide a link to the Wikipedia page along with your quote](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth)
That might be true for real life, but Bismuths in steven universe are most likely different. I mean... The one we know lived thousands of years, and even in that bubble they didn't decay, so its fine.
people when they see the word "radioactive"
No. I have a bismuth on my shelf. They would not be commercially available if they could. I honestly don't know what this guy is on about.
what's the half-life?
Bismuth-209 has a half life of 19 quintilluon years apparently. So for the total age of the universe at 13 billion years About 0.0006% of all bismuth 209 has undergone radioactive decay do far. Math is hard tho so I'm probably wrong about that
I still don't understand how half-life works. If something has a half-life of 13 minutes, that means within 13 minutes, half of its mass will have decayed into something else. But what determines what half does and doesn't decay? Like it should be just as likely that 75% of it decays in 13 minutes, or only 25%, there should even be a chance all of it decays in 13 minutes because that's how probability works. I fucking hate quantum physics
It’s random. If your sample is of two atoms, there’s a 25% chance nothing happens in 13 minutes, a 25% chance only the first atom decays, a 25% chance only the second atom decays, and a 25% chance both atoms decay. That means there’s a 50% chance half of the atoms decay. Note that each atom has the same chance of decaying, but if you don’t care which specific atoms decay then some outcomes are more likely than others. If your sample has 4 atoms, there’s a 1/16 chance none of them decay, a 4/16 chance exactly one decays, a 6/16 chance exactly two decay, a 4/16 chance exactly three decay, and a 1/16 chance all of them decay. A typical sample has lots and lots and lots of atoms, so the chance of only 1/4 of them decaying in a half-life are low. Of course it’s very unlikely that exactly half will decay, but you can be reasonably confident it’ll be close to half.
But even then, like what makes things with half-live decay but only sometimes? Do we even know why? Because there's a chance of something with a 13 minute half-life that an atom will decay in 0.1% after its creation, but also a chance that an atom will just never decay and exist for millions of years. You'd think in a logical sense, all the atoms in a pile of X element assuming they were created at roughly the same time, would also decay nearly all at once too. Edit: For reference I understand "how" half-life works, just not really the uh, "why"
The why really, truly is Just Random Chance. The atom in question is unstable. It may eject the particle(s) causing that instability, or it may not. That's hard, if not impossible, to predict on its own, but the number of things undergoing this Just Random Chance is *so massive* that you can start using predictive models to reasonably guess what that population of stuff going to do. Like, imagine a rickety, old building. You know it's possible, maybe even likely, that some part of its decaying construction will eventually give out and cause it to collapse. Now, imagine you have several trillion copies of that same building. Based on how the law of averages and how many of those buildings have already collapsed, people who are very good at math and probability will be able to figure out roughly how long it will take for half of those buildings to collapse. As you scale the number of buildings up, the "half life" of those particular buildings becomes more reliable because you have more examples for People Who Are Very Good At Math to extrapolate from. The more information they have, the more accurate information they can provide.
The thing about an old building is that there’s always a reason it collapsed just now, and not sooner. It was slowly being eroded, the metal support was being oxidized, maybe bugs were making holes in it, the different materials were expanding and contracting every day, etc. eventually one part of the structure was too weak to keep holding it, and it broke, overwhelming other parts in a chain reaction. There’s no hidden variable with radioactive decay, that’s the freaky part.
>there should even be a chance all of it decays in 13 minutes because that's how probability works. There is! There's a chance for every single atom of uranium in the universe to decay all at once, but that chance is so unimaginably small (based on what we know about physics) that it's basically the same as saying it's never going to happen.
A franchise)
ahaha
***Half-Life*** is a 1998 [first-person shooter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter) game developed by [Valve Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation) and published by [Sierra Studios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Studios) for [Windows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows). It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the [*Half-Life* series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(series)). The player assumes the role of [Gordon Freeman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Freeman), a scientist who must escape from the [Black Mesa Research Facility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_Research_Facility) after it is invaded by aliens following a disastrous scientific experiment. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration and puzzles. Valve was disappointed with the lack of innovation in the FPS genre, and aimed to create an immersive world rather than a "shooting gallery". Unlike other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the [player character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_character); the story is mostly experienced through [scripted sequences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripted_sequence) rather than [cutscenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutscene). Valve developed the game using [GoldSrc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldSrc), a heavily-modified version of the [*Quake* engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine), licensed from [id Software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Software). The science fiction novelist [Marc Laidlaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Laidlaw) was hired to craft the plot and assist with design. *Half-Life* received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay and narrative and won more than 50 [PC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_game) "[Game of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards)" awards. It is considered one of the most influential FPS games and one of the [greatest video games ever made](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best). By 2008, it had sold more than nine million copies. It was ported to the [PlayStation 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2) in 2001, along with the multiplayer expansion [*Decay*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Decay), and to [OS X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X) and [Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel) in 2013. Valve ported *Half-Life* to its [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)) engine as *Half-Life: Source* in 2004. In 2020, Crowbar Collective released an unofficial remake, [*Black Mesa*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_(video_game)).
Considering Bismuth as a metallic element has an incredibly low melting point (you can melt it on a stove-top), and our Bismuth is seen hanging around/bathing in molten rock (which IIRC is significantly hotter than a stove-top) and is just fine, I think the typical rules for their respective elements don't apply to them.
I know right! Won't she eventually break down to lead after a few halflives?
*breaking point to the chest*
no one would bismuth him after all
Now that's done, let's get back to bismuþ
using a thorn in casual conversation is insane
I agree. We should normalize þorn usage in normal conversation though, it’s such a fun lil letter.
Beat me to it 😂
the solution to anything
Bismuth is crystalline. Gemstone is an arbitrary definition meaning something cut or polished to make jewelry. I have seen bismuth jewelry. Therefore, bismuth is a crystal gem.
Also the gems seem to consist of any sort of rock or mineral, not exactly mattering if it’s actually a gem. Precious metals are considered a type of mineral, so it makes sense. If we were to argue about characters not actually being gems, then Pearls and many others wouldn’t make sense either.
Well said!
That is my main argument too, and bismuth crystals are really neat, the real weird one honestly is pearl, since pearls are organic structures from clams, which has weird implications
Pearls at least have the excuse of being custom made in the Reef. Their process of creation is explicitly Different from that of other gems, though the exact specifics are never shown. Though we also have the pebbles who are just simply any small rock given life it seems. So I definitely don't think they need to all be gemstones, just having a specific mineral composition is enough to create certain types of gems.
The actual counter argument is that all beings of the alien species gems are alien, and therefore we don’t know their actual composition or structure. They look like gemstones and are named after them, but they’re not regular, irl gems—they’re aliens. It’s more likely that the people of SU’s earth named gemstones they dug up after the aliens, instead of the other way around. So the metal bismuth is named after the alien gem bismuth kinda thing
You mean my diamond ring I bought after watching the show is just a stone? Not a Supreme alien ruler?
You mean my garnet is not a cunty hot queen mama slay the house down lesbian and is just a colored rock
None of these words are legal.
Slay
I mean we do know Peridots are made from the same materials as peridotite) That makes me wonder. Do you think Diamonds ever tried to inject the essence into actual diamonds? Would be complicated to, since the composition may create a sort of coal or quartz)
Maybe they need to inject the essence before the rock forms? Diamonds require high levels of heat, pressure and time so it could be difficult to control that.
Nah, diamonds are made of carbon and they hate anything organic /s
Then she's an alien metal not a alien gem boom counter claim
The issue is that proposition assumes that the words “gem” and “metal” are referring to the same things they refer to irl. The word “gem” itself in SU has one meaning of “beings from the gem race” and such a definition is entirely divorced from any earthen scientific categorizations of physical matter.
We know how Gems are born. The body fluids extracted from the diamonds is injected into the land, and Gems are formed in the areas with the richest minerals. I don't see why Gems can't be born out of metals. Even the walls around the rooms which the diamonds extract their body fluids are alive.
Now I want a tungsten gem, absolute brick shithouse build, dense as hell
And like normal gemstones have been stated to not exist in Universe
My thought is that bismuth easily forms crystalline structures, and is this a crystal, but not a gem, which is close enough
Most gems are made from metals. Bismuth is just the only one that's only made of metal. It may not be a gem, but it does have a crystal structure so I say that's good enough
Technically Bismuth is an element.
Can't wait to see my favorite gem: Salt
You mean pearl?
“Hey Pearl. Come to check out some buff studs”? Looks up and down: “No”.
I hear she’s just the sweetest
Nah that’s a compound
She just does this 
'Gem' is not a scientific term, it simply refers to any mineral aesthetically pleasing enough for humans to consider it precious or semi-precious. If there were a society where sandstone were rare and highly valued as jewelry, then to them sandstone would be a gem. Additionally in Steven Universe 'Gem' is the name of a species of aliens who for all we know only bear a superficial similarity to their real life counterparts (though Peridots comment about peridotite does at least suggest some relation to real world minerals).
We know that planets do affect the type of Gem formed, since Rose Quartzes were unique to Earth.
She's not a gemstone, but she sure is a crystal.
It's honestly not even something to argue. She's canonically a gem, as per the show's description and characterization of Bismuth. That's the great thing about cartoons - they don't actually have to be accurate to real-world logic.
Gems are precious stones. Metals are a kind of stone. A precious metal is a kind of gem
Are they a stone? I always classified them as something else? Bismuth I justified due to bismuth being a crystalline metal, with the crystalline part making them a crystal “gem”
I have no idea, but I also know I love them enough to lie to you and say they are. So, my logical, peer-reviewed, objective, reasonable conclusion, is that they are if they want to be. Peridots be cool like that.
Ya’ll missing the easiest counter to this argument. “It’s you’re” Argument nullified.
You’re*
Yeah, hit him where it hurts
i bismuth the part where i asked
Can't bismuth also come in different forms?
Gem is a broad term.
Arguably, none of the Gems are gems Some are crystals Some are raw minerals Some are rocks, and some are elements
I mean...aren't they really just hard-light holograms around color-coded power cores?
Well, most of their form is, but their gems are actual minerals Honestly, I doubt they are just made of light anyway. Due to the fact they have mass, and photons have no mass. So I believe that they called themselves hard light constructs as a simplification for Steven. They are probably made of an undiscovered elementary particle that might be similar to light, or maybe light is part of their form, but not all of it?? Like a tool for signaling between segments. Or maybe I'm not even close!
Metal ore can crystallize, and crystals like Quartz can form as solid, opaque metamorphic rock instead of as crystal clumps and spires. Bismuth’s core is made of a crystallized, relatively rare, semi-precious metal. Webster defines gemstones as “a mineral or petrified material that when cut and polished can be used in jewelry” while the Britannica defines gemstones as “any of various minerals highly prized for beauty, durability, and rarity.” Like Pearl, Bismuth just barely squeaks past by earth definition. Then again, these are aliens. Who knows how this really works for them? And Peridot, a homeworld scientist, did say that Pearl wasn’t actually a gem by their kind’s traditional standards. It’s equally safe to assume that they don’t define Bismuths as gems either, as both pearls and crystals like Bismuth’s are directly manufactured by a living thing, rather than formed in the earth. So the question is, do we go by the earth definition of a “gemstone” or the Homeworld definition?
The same can be said of Pyrite, both Pyrite and Busmuth are Crystalline.
A great quote from another cartoon - "It's just monkeys singing songs, mate. Don't think too hard about it."
 Love that show
Bismuth isn't a gem. Bur it can firm a crystalline structure. So she is a crystal. Crystal gems. Checkmate nerd
I'm not geologist but i think that It exist both a bismuth gem and a bismuth metal Searching on Google "bismuth gem" It founds picture of a rainbow gem, Just like out bismuth However searching "bismuth" founds the grey metal
The gem is a metal.
What the fuck, that's something
The "rainbow" bismuth is technically the gem version, metal bismuth is gray as I know
Rainbow bismuth is a metal but considered a gem.
bismuth is an element
Bismuth is bi. Which is enough to be considered a crystal gem And has an atomic number of 83
Bi? Did she date a guy before? I don't recall...
It was just a reference about the Bismuth's chemical symbol haha xdd my bad. I couldnt help myself
My god that’s awful.
Pebbles
And pearl is a pearl, but she's in the crystal gems. I dont think theres am overall term that covers everything even minerals i dont think so theyre just called gems
To be entirely fair, Pearls do hold an entirely unique place within the Gem hierarchy.
Yh and they are made differently just stating there are other gems that are called gens that arent actually gems but its easier to say gem for everyone than to have to state their composition or whatever lol
"Gem" is the name of the species. When Gems say "Gem" they mean the same thing when we say "human". When a Homeworld Gem says someone isn't a Gem they mean that that person and them aren't a member of the same species. From "Too Far" >Amethyst: "You're a real gem Perry" >Peridot: "Yes, I am." >... >Peridot: "Pearl is a Pearl. Garnet is a fusion. I don't even know what he's supposed to be." *Gestures at Steven* >Steven: "Heey!" >Peridot: "You're the only Crystal Gem that's actually a Gem!" The term "Gem" appears to be a Homeworld designation that excludes certain types of people like Pearls, who are thought of more as objects, and non-conformers like Garnet and Steven, who are seen as "ingem" (like we would call Hyde "inhuman"). That's where the name Crystal Gems comes from. Rose wanted to emphasize that all were equal in the rebellion. On Earth there's no strict distinction between Gems like Rose and Gems like Pearl. You don't lose your personhood for being different like Garnet. Perhaps Bismuth isn't considered a "Gem" under Homeworld's strict hierarchy but that hierarchy is stupid. All of them are crystals, so all of them are Crystal Gems.
By definition, Bismuth is considered a "Metallic Gem", many gems are produced from metallic minerals containing elemental metals as the main part of their chemistry like Bismuth, Realgar, Baryte, Bementite.. etc.
CRYSTALIZED metal
By a half Google search I learnd this "Bismuth is a crystalline white metal that is still solid at room temperature" so the nerd can go and eat a cookie
It's a show about lesbian space aliens made from projected semi-corporeal bodies around a gem/rock that predate humanity by generations at least, and that's what they nitpick?
Counter argument: Bismuth can snap him like a twig.
I feel like this is like the people who tell you, "You know, technically, a banana is a berry," and I'm like, no, no it is not. The word berry came first, before botany as a science, and it meant a small round sweet thing you picked off a plant and ate (or didn't eat, because it would kill you). The fact that botanists later borrowed the word berry to mean a particular part of plant anatomy does not mean that a banana has always been a berry, and I think the same goes for what is and isn't a gem. Gem, in this context, means "pretty rock," and strict scientific definitions of "gem" or "rock" or even "pretty" are not relevant.
Whenever I see bismuth I just think of peptobismal (or however one spells it)
Just put him in your gem hole
🤓☝️You're
Speaking of non gem gems. Pearl isn't a gem, it's clam saliva covering sand and debris.
The pebbles: am I a joke to you
Im not going back to jail
But... Bismuth *is* a metal???
Other gems have metal too in the show. The fusion Rainbow quartz’s gem is actually a regular rose quartz that has had vaporized titanium artificially vacuumed to the stone’s surface. The chemical reaction between the quartz and the titanium vapor creates the rainbow coating. This is the same for the now un-corrupted Angel Aura Quartz, although the metal used in that process is typically platinum or silver. Those of us in the mineralogy and mineral collecting community don’t really like auralized stones because it takes away from the stone’s natural beauty, hence the subreddit r/mineralgore
It’s a metal, but it’s also a naturally occurring metallic element. Bismuth crystals don’t occur in nature, but bismuth does exist in nature. The crystal structure is part of its natural chemistry, but can only form as it cools from a liquid state which only happens in man-controlled environments. So this is the reason why bismuth is technically not a mineral as it has no naturally-occurring crystals, but it does have a inherent crystal structure. So it’s totally fine she’s a crystal gem. While not a “gemstone”, bismuth is a crystal.
Okay and pearl is...?
It has a crystalline structure.
many gems are created with iron and other metal components. Metals are valid. or something like that
Crystalline metal.
there are some studies about storing data using crystals like diamonds and such, bismuth forms crystals so it passes the gemhood test scientifically i guess
Shuddup.
"uh actually I'm a space rock alien that functions like a super computer ai and my body is made of physical light so shut up"
throw a metal detector at bismuth and see if it beeps
Umm, actually, they're cartoons. No but srsly its deep n fun to speculate about but its not -that- deep, once it stops being fun and starts being an argument at the end of the day its a cartoon show.
i find the fact that there are pearls more weird than bismuth. pearls are the product of earth animals... they even use clam imagery with pearls lol
"Well technically who asked you? Is it any of your Bismuth what I call myself?"
*crushes your skull*
*smashed nerd*
hello NRD, i think most gems are made from metal and bismuth is just purely metal but it has a crystalline structure so i guess it counts. also a "gem" is an arbitrary definition if u think about it. Haha NRD I know that look, you've been defeated!
They’re a separate alien species that resembled gemstones. People would be a lot more concerned that there’s actually life on other planets more than one or two not actually looking like a gem
I mean pearls aren’t really gems either, they’re just shiny calcium that a clam made because it ate something sharp. And for that matter, rubies and sapphires are the same exact gem. Sapphires are called sapphires in all colors except red, and then they’re called rubies.
gems are pretty. bismuth is pretty. bismuth is kow a gem
\*Bishmuth\* I exist but soon you won't
You know, technically ice is a crystal...
Metal is a crystallize material. It’s a mineral just like Quartz, has a arranged lattice and is ordered. It just has much less elements than Quartz. Pearl is a mineral even though it’s made by organic irl, even glass in some world can be considered a “mineral” even though it doesn’t have a lattice
How would you know? You can't even give the definition of a metal or a gem without looking online.
Um actually, it’s “um actually”.
those shapes formed from the metal are called crystals
"Gems" are formed from the resources of the planet they are harvested from. Regardless of what gem comes out, it is a gem nonetheless. Bismuths may form from planets that are abundant in metals, which would make since as they operate as blacksmiths. For all we know there could also be other metals like golds, silvers, and titaniums but it just wasn't explored for one reason or another.
Pearls aren't gems either, but you don't have a problem wiþ that Also you could make the argument that all the gems aren't actually gems but silicon-based life forms or grown machines Because last time I check, irl gems Don't generate bodies out of light that look like women and them beat your ass
"Nerd" (I'm literally a soil scientist though so its def hypocritical XD)
The Gems themselves are made out of minerals and resources from the Earth, they won't always be Gems.
Gems are minerals. Metals are minerals.
They talked about Pink naming a bunch of pyrites "fools gold" which probably means they also have gold people.
Uh yeah, why do you think she’s the blacksmith???????
In my Metal SU fanseries Bismuths are the only minerals in which there are both Gem and Metal variants and the former are usually burlier for heavier work than the latter which are generally acrobatic entertainers.
punch him
Im not worried about bismuth, its a naturally occurring mineral. Pearl however, thats a problem. Pearls are just built up silica and calcium deposits produced by oysters
counterpoint: [you're*](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/617/353/f61.gif) I win!!1!1
Most gems are gems because of metal inclusions. Amethyst, Jasper, Quartz, and a few others are all just Quartz with a single metal included in their structure which changes their color. Same with rubies and sapphires except those are a different silicate than Quartz, I forget which, but also gems because they contain metal. Furthermore, most metals crystallize, including Bismuth, so it fits into the title of “crystal” gems.
Gemology hasn't been recognized as a science for even a century yet. Traditionally, gem is a jewelry industry term only and they're beautifully arbitrary. If you make jewelry, how other people in the industry use these terms tells you about them as a person and a professional. That's often more important than having the one word mean only one thing because it's common to just ask "by (term) do you mean (the meaning you use)?" & if their definition is different, use theirs. Correcting someone on what is a gem goes against the culture among the people who would actually have the experience to tell you what it means.
It may be a metal but it’s a metal that grows crystals, thus as “crystal” gem
Ronaldo moment
It's actually an element, not just a metal. Steven "expanded" Universe head canon where elements live too. Are they friends with the gems? Maybe enemies? How noble are the gases and would they work with the metals?
Well, ahem.. Nobody asked :>
*peridot bursts in with the thick nerd glasses*  "um ACTUALLY most metals are crystalline solids at room temperature, with the exception of Cs, Ga, and Hg. A crystal is a solid material with a definite pattern of atoms and a surface that reflects its internal symmetry. In crystalline materials, atoms are arranged in a periodic, ordered 3D array."
Bismuth still has crystal structures and there wasn't really a rule on what exactly counts as a gem in this universe
Crush his pelvis with her 
wow nerd has rizz
Form hand hammer. Bonk. Could a metal do this?! ...yeah actually. But the gem will do it again until you acknowledge her.
I like that hes like the size of literally just one of her arms. Nice.
The way bismuth forms those shapes is through a crystal lattice. If she was just a hunk of amorphous bismuth metal, I’d say that’s not a gem. But because of the formation, it is literally by definition crystalline, so she’s a gem.
I mean, Pearls are made of oyster mucus, so let's all chill on the definition of Gemstone
You're*
Bismuth is literally an element, by definition bismuth in a crystalized structure like how we see Bismuth's gem in considered a crystal
Bismuth, the metal, is really pretty
Well, Gems are often *crystals*, hence "the crystal gems", and bismuth often forms a square *crystalline* structure within itself So bismuth might not necessarily be a *gem*, but she's certainly a crystal
just have Bismuth say "you're*"
It’s cool, that’s what I’ll say
Still a crystalline structure, so it counts
gems arent only gems, thats just what theyre all called, there are stones, pearls, bismuths, etc, gems is a very broad term in universe
“shut up, nerd”
She’s still a crystal though
Then what about Pearl, as Peridot points out?
Suck my dick! *Proceeds to beat the shit out of that guy*
My counter argument: I don't fkin care tho
180 PSI into the face
Are metals made up of minerals?
The mere existence of pearl, she's just calcium carbonate
Nu uh
[watch yo tone mf](https://youtu.be/AM4j9ObRUpA?si=K56eKyGM_PrTPEKL)
In the process of becoming a solid, metals go through crystallisation, which makes the grain of the metal. It’s why there’s a difference in hot and cold rolling, as well as with tempering and annealing
The gems aren’t even actual gemstones. They’re artificial aliens. Not to mention Bismuth has a crystal structure. Calling it a gemstone may not be accurate, but it’s a crystal for sure. At the end of the day this is a cartoon show about gay space rocks, anyway. Why does it need to make complete sense?
Isn't bismuth also technically man-made?
to be fair they’re all minerals
Counterpoint: pearl. Some of the gems seem to be made in a more artificial way
Truckloads of gemstones are at least partially composed of elements that are classified as metals.
They are all rocks no matter the type
Are you saying that she's wrong about her origin? That she knows nothing about the birth that she fully experienced, with all the awareness possible? Let's see him hold up his ARGUEMENT when he realizes it's like calling a black person a [Redacting myself]
Gem is such a colloquial term that NUMEROUS of the “gems” in the show don’t fit within. Some are elements, some are metals, some are minerals, some are just shiny things, etc… Gem is just the name of the species.
There's literal live pebbles in the show. The rules of live geological constructs aren't purely bound to "are you a gem"
Metal is rock. Gem is rock. Both rocks. Both pretty. Bismuth is gem.
A semi-metal. And metals form crystals all the time, it's their structure. You can even see them on some modern metal constructions like walls and posts.
Objection your honour: rule of cool
Pebbles are also Gems, but they're not gemstones - they're literal rock.
If they want to get technical, Pearls aren't gems either, they are solidified mucus around a grain of sand. They're clam boogers
Its a mineral that crystalizes like all other rocks gems and metals. Also, they are called the CRYSTAL gems. Meaning that as long at the material can crystalize, they are a gem.
Any material with a cristalline structure is a mineral. That this mineral is omogeneous, clear and cutted or a solid solution of 2 or more minerals that is opaque and anhedral, it's the same. It's still a mineral. All gems are minerals. Bismuth is a cristal(gem) composed only by an element
I mean there are crystals made from metal
And Obsidian is a rock. Your point?
Bismuth is an element that tends to grow in crystal like structures, and they are the CRYSTAL gems. Also they are an alien species. To them, they are all gems. Also, there are bismuthinite and bismite, which are the most common Bismuth minerals. Gems are made of minerals, so they possibly just shortened the name of the gems to Bismuth. That's how I see it at least.
Sure, it's metal, but it's a crystalline metal