More than 50 years ago, two minerals called stepanovite (steh-PAN-oh-vite) and zhemchuzhnikovite (zhem-chooz-NIK-oh-vite) were discovered in a mine in Siberia, Russia. Scientists at McGill University in Canada recently found that the minerals are solids known as metal organic frameworks. Researchers had created such materials in labs, but none had ever been observed in nature before. 

The minerals’ crystals are made up of molecules arranged in a pattern that resembles a honeycomb. That structure allows them to store other molecules within the pattern’s spaces, chemists say. Such materials could have many applications. For instance, they could be used to soak up harmful greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, that trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere.