[tambourine_man]

Neither fire nor crystals mutate. That's the thing.

A crystals arrangement of its microscopic structure will always be the same, as will the oxidation reaction in fire.

A virus undergoes darwinian evolution and will adapt to its environment

[adrianN]

Crystals actually do mutate, the crystallization process is not perfect and introduces defects.

[dekhn]

that's not what mutation means.

[drdeca]

I thought mutate just meant change?

[dekhn]

in biology, mutate has a very specific meaning, and it does not include the formation of imperfect crystals. That area has its own set of terminology.