this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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Licensed Professional Geologist here, and licking is a totally valid method for distinguishing between mineral hand samples that have very similar properties otherwise. For instance, halite (NaCl, aka table salt) and sylvite (KCl) are isomorphous, which means they have the exact same crystal structure and are very difficult to distinguish using traditional methods. Halite tastes like salt, but sylvite makes your tongue tingle when licked. Our mineralogy professor told is it's the only reliable way to differentiate the two without actual chemistry analysis.
Licking is a chemical analysis, albeit a crude one
I wouldn't call a chemical touch sensor optimized by eons of evolution to differentiate molecules from one another crude.
In some ways it's no more crude than looking at it, right?
You PIERCE my privacy with your gaze. I feel violated!
You ASSAULT me with your tongue. I feel violated!
Yep, both senses seem equally crude 😄
I like KCl, it makes my food taste better when I replace 1/3 to 1/2 of the NaCl in a recipe with KCl (in addition to adding the remaining amount of NaCl)
Couldn't you use a Geiger counter to detect the KCl sample? It should be detectably more radioactive than the NaCl sample
Pick rocks and lick rocks. The way of the hound.
Couldn't you just scratch one with your keys?
Between halite and quartz, absolutely. Halite and sylvite have the Moh's hardness of 2, so your keys would scratch both.
Jan Zalasiewicz? Is that you?