There are plenty of amazing minerals that get their color from radiation, and today we're focusing on Smoky Quartz and Hyalite Opal.
The chemical formula for Quartz is SiO2 which will produce a colorless crystal. In the mineral world you get plenty of trace elements that become part of the crystal lattice that makes up the crystal. In the instance of Smoky Quartz the trace element present is aluminum. Once these aluminum atoms are exposed to gamma radiation you get the characteristic grey to brownish-grey color of Smoky Quartz.
Hyalite Opal is another interesting mineral that doesn't actually need radiation to exist. The chemical formula is SiO2 · nH2O. It's unique to see water still bound in the crystal structure of a crystal and is one of the reasons for its bubbly, glass-like appearance. Hyalite gets extra interesting with trace amounts of uranium in its crystal structure. This will cause neon green fluorescence when exposed to UV light reminiscent of man made uranium glass. Some Hyalite will only fluoresce under shortwave UV, and some will fluoresce under both shortwave and longwave.
You can find Smoky Quartz and Hyalite Opal all over the world but I want to give a shoutout to a very special locale, the Erongo Mountains in Namibia! The Hyalite from this locale is so fluorescent that it will even react to just daylight! You can also get some really funky crystal shapes from the Smoky Quartz. You'll also see combo specimens of Smoky and Hyalite which makes sense because both minerals are related to radiation in some way.