Dr. Chris Stanley, a minerologist at London's Natural History Museum, was puzzled when mining Group Rio Tinto brought him an unusual specimen. Discovered in a mine near Jadar, Serbia, the mineral had a known chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

Using his own expertise and specialized resources, Dr. Stanley was unable to identify the mineral. Finally, researching the formula on the Internet, it turns out that this mineral had already been described in Superman comic books and movies. The formula is an exact match for Kryptonite, the fictional mineral. Kryptonite, according to DC Comics, was created when the planet Krypton blew up.

"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," reported Dr. Stanley, but "the real mineral is white and harmless. The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite. Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite was the coincidence of a lifetime," he added.

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