London Mayor Boris Johnson takes part in a tug of war with members of the armed services to launch the London Poppy Day, outside City Hall, in London, October 27, 2015. London Poppy Day is a street collection event to raise money for serving and retired members of the armed services and their families. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.

A visitor tries out the new glass Skywalk at the top of the refurbished Blackpool Tower on September 1, 2011 in Blackpool, England. After a GBP Ј20 million refurbishment, the iconic seaside Blackpool Tower opened today to the general public. The observation deck at the top of the tower becomes the Blackpool Tower Eye and features a skywalk made of glass overlooking the sea and the promenade. The opening is part of Blackpool's GBP Ј250 million GBP regeneration project. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Men rest after salvaging metal on the 30th floor of the “Tower of David” skyscraper in Caracas February 3, 2014. A 45-storey skyscraper in the center of Venezuela's capital Caracas is a slum, probably the highest in the world. Dubbed the “Tower of David”, the building was intended to be a shining new financial center but was abandoned around 1994 after the death of its developer – banker and horse-breeder David Brillembourg – and the collapse of the financial sector. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Gisele Marie, a Muslim woman and professional heavy metal musician, plays her Gibson Flying V electric guitar during a concert in Sao Paulo December 16, 2014. Based in Sao Paulo, Marie, 42, is the granddaughter of German Catholics, and converted to Islam several months after her father passed away in 2009. Marie, who wears the Burka, has been fronting her brothers' heavy metal band “Spectrus” since 2012. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

There is an endless bounty of eye-catching gemstones throughout the world and this spectacular boulder opal is one unique beauty that looks like a shimmering crystal encased in a tree fossil. Its opalescent sheen seeps through the cracks of the seemingly wooden rings in lustrous hues of emerald green and aqua blue. Like something out of a fairy tale, the triangular piece radiates through an organic pattern mimicking the growth rings of tree.