The Amazing Life of Sand

Sand is not a singular thing. If you collected some sand from a nearby shore and put it under a microscope, you'd likely find something quite different from what I would. There's another part of the strange beauty of sand -- from our perspective, it's one homogenous thing, but from the sand's perspective, each grain has its own history. Check out this short video from KQED's new Deep Look series exploring what sand really is, and where it comes from:

For more on sand, read KQED's blog post exploring sand around the San Francisco Bay.

For more mental_floss sand coverage, see: Why Do Ostriches Stick Their Heads in the Sand?; Jim Henson's Lost Epic: Tale of Sand; and This Sand Hates Water!