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The sky was a bright blue over the University of California, Berkeley, Chemistry Building.  A fresh breeze blew through the Golden Gate and over the campus.  An unusual summer shower had freshened the lawns and put down the dust.  Within the building, Professor Watership conferred with his rara avis, a graduate assistant.

“Ah, Mister Chalmers,”  Professor Watership smiled.  “As always, your reports are excellent.  Berkeley Chemistry and Mineralogy is indeed fortunate to have you as my technician.  Our Department Head tells me that your grades are also first-rate.  Professor Hildebrand spoke up for your work doing library reading and research.  As a graduate student, you are approaching the point where you should write a Master’s Thesis and then begin work on a doctoral project. To some extent, you are expected to come up with your own doctoral research topic, but first I have something that will be entirely adequate if done quickly for a Master’s Thesis.”

“And that would be, Sir?” James Chalmers asked.  “This would be in addition to my paid work and courses?”

“It would be the equivalent of a course for a term or two. Hopefully a term or less, since I suspect there will be competition. You perhaps heard about the blasted heath in Arizona?”

“Yes, sir. It was terrible, what happened all those people. And no explanation as to how or why.” Chalmers frowned and shook his head.

“I have a contact in Prescott,” Watership explained.  “Karl Eisenhower says he is just an amateur gem dealer, but he has identified and sent off to here for analysis more new minerals than anyone else I would care to name.  In any event, the Associate Sheriff of the town, who as strange as it sounds has a doctorate in physics from Harvard, recognized two new minerals that are clearly associated with the Heath and that Karl has never seen before. He sent us samples of both of them and asks for analysis, so that they can be named.  He also sent us what is allegedly a piece of steel, if you ignore that it shatters like glass, which I took over to metallurgy.”

“That sounds truly interesting,” Chalmers responded.  “We have them already?”

“Some thoughtful clerk in the Prescott Post Office marked the box ‘Forensic Samples, Blasted Heath, Urgent” and they reached us in only two days.  The box then languished in the mail room over the weekend.”

“Remarkable! I look forward to starting,” Chalmers said enthusiastically.

“Some caution is needed,” Watership explained. “Arizona sent a troop of cavalry through the blasted heath, and most of the horses and men are now either sick or dead. I infer that something in one of the minerals or the area has become poisonous. I took the precaution of testing, the Roentgen test, key on photographic plate, to see if either sample is radio-active, but the answer seems to be in the negative. In any event, start with the orange sand. We have a lot of it. The violet transparent stones are very pretty, but there are not many of them and it is not clear that we can get more. Oh, there’s a cover letter from the physicist, describing exactly where the stones were found, and reporting the tests done by Mr. Eisenhower. As modern science, they leave a tad bit to be desired, but the tests were undoubtedly done carefully.”

“I can start on it now,” Chalmers said.

“Notwithstanding haste, go to lunch first.  A hungry hand is a careless hand.”