I may be a materials nerd, but granite always gets me excited. I think it was ever since I heard about Plutons. A pluton is a giant plug of magma, molten rock which rises up through the earth’s crust, and slowly cools and crystallises, often becoming glittery, like this granite. The whole thing is so dramatic! The word pluton goes back to the beginnings of geological science, and the understanding that some rock originated from the ‘underworld’, of which Pluto is the classical God.