Have Scientists Found the ‘Sunstone,’ the Mythical Viking Super-Compass?

This is some Indiana Jones level stuff right here. Scientists may have uncovered the Viking “sunstone,” a magical-sounding crystal whose powers to locate the sun despite cloud cover, snow, and darkness were understandably considered to be a legend. A group of researchers think a cloudy crystal found in an Elizabethan shipwreck off the Channel Islands may have been the mystical sunstone—thought to be one of the secrets of the Vikings’ legendary navigational skills on the seas. More »