mineral +

Any mineral of agricultural application, both as a fertiliser or as a nutrient: Agrominerals are of importance to farming and horticulture, especially with regards to soil fertility and fertilizer components. These agrominerals are usually essential plant nutrients.

1. The process by which organisms produce skeletal structures containing crystalline or amorphous inorganic substances.
2. The production of partly or wholly mineralized internal or external structures by living organisms.

Organisms use a wide variety of minerals to make their skeletons, including silica, apatite, and several polymorphs of carbonate, in particular aragonite and calcite.

It is unclear, however, why different taxa evolved to use one mineral rather than another. Lineages rarely switched their mineralogy after acquiring skeletons, suggesting that, for most taxa, ambient seawater chemistry does not strongly influence skeletal mineralogy.

Mineralization of most animal skeletons is biologically controlled, occurring in an environment isolated from seawater. As a result, seawater chemistry does not have a direct influence on the mineralogy of most animal skeletons the way it does for biomineralizers that induce mineralization directly from seawater.

1. The act or process of removing minerals or mineral salts from a liquid; such as, water.
2. The loss, deprivation, or removal of minerals or mineral salts from the body; especially, through disease, as with the loss of calcium from bones or teeth.
3. Excessive elimination of mineral or inorganic salts; as in, pulmonary tuberculosis, cancer, and osteomalacia.

To remove minerals or mineral salts from something, such as from a bone or a liquid: To demineralize water is done to ensure the quality and consistency of various products, as well as to ensure consistent and predictable functions of sensitive equipment.

To demineralize or to withdraw and remove the mineral content of the fluid was important for more efficient applications in the clinic.

1. A general term for any naturally occurring inorganic substance, of inorganic or possibly organic origin, that has a definite chemical composition and an orderly internal structure, a crystal form, and characteristic chemical and physical properties.
2. Any substance of nonbiologic origin, including inorganic constituents of living matter.

The meaning is extended to include petroleum, as its biologic origin is only remote.

1. The material in coal from which ash is formed.
2. Material in coal that is not formed from decomposed plant products; that is, minerals that were present in the original plant materials or that were assimilated from extraneous sources; such as, sediments and mineralized water.

Clay, pyrite, and calcite are minerals often present in coal.

A colorless liquid petroleum derivative with little discernible odor or taste, widely used as a lubricant and for various other purposes.

1. The fact of becoming a mineral; the conversion of organic compounds into inorganic ones.
2. A process in vertebrates in which the mineral component of bone tissue increases in content and/or density.

Examples of mineralization include the deposition of salts in living organisms; such as, calcium phosphate in bone formation, and the complete oxidation of organic compounds, so that their carbon and hydrogen are oxidized to carbon dioxide and water, and other elements present to inorganic oxidation products, whose amounts may be measured comparatively easily.

Divination with minerals: Greg found out that fortune-telling was possible with different kinds of natural solid homogeneous inorganic substances with certain chemical components, like chromite, rock salt, and columbite, and was called mineralmancy.

A standard for evaluating coal quality, assuming that all mineral matter has been removed from it, leaving "pure" coal.

A type of steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex.

Mineralocorticoids ; such as aldosterone and deoxycorticosterone, control salt and water balance by their action on the kidneys.

1. Someone who is versed in, or who specializes in, the study of mineralogy.
2. Anyone who is devoted to the study of minerals.
3. A scientist trained in mineralogy.

1. The scientific study of minerals and how to classify, distinguish, and locate them.
2. A branch of geology that studies minerals; their structure and properties, and the ways of distinguishing them.
3. A profile of an area's mineral deposits.

1. A naturally occurring, usually inorganic, mineral-like material that is amorphous and lacks a highly ordered atomic arrangement and characteristic external form; such as, opal or volcanic glass.
2. A metallic element in liquid form; such as, mercury at ordinary temperatures.

1. The restoration of lost mineral constituents to the body, especially to bone.
2. The restoring of minerals to demineralized structures or substances.
3. The restoration of mineral elements; such as, of calcium salts to bones or teeth.