The Stone That Didn't Look Like Much

Dr. Helen Pratt spent forty-one years at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California, examining stones. Over a hundred thousand passed through her hands. Most were ordinary. Some were good. A handful were remarkable. But she always told her students the same thing: "The extraordinary ones never announce themselves. They arrive looking like everything else on the tray." On a Tuesday in March 2019, a young couple walked into her lab carrying a small stone wrapped in a dish towel.…