Jan Berry, age 11, of Baxter, Iowa, for her question:

What is lapis lazuli?

Lapis Lazuli is a stony mine just as beautiful as its name. Its colors challenge the peacock's tail, with vivid blues, violets and bluo‑greens. These colors often appear in bands, blending from one to another. The ancients, who mined the beautiful stone in Afghanistan, called it sapphire, though it is no relative to the precious stone we call sapphire today.

Artists of bygone days used lapis lazuli to make their paints. They called it ultramarine because it was brought to them from over the sow. Nowadays artists' colors arc made chemically.

Lapis lazuli is a stone made by water, washed, sifted and settled from limestones. The geologist calls it lazurite and it is composed of the elements silica aluminum and sodium.