Glowstone

Glowstone (formerly known as Lightstone, Brittle Gold, Brightstone, Brimstone or Australium) is a golden block that glows indefinitely. This block can only be found naturally in The Nether. It generates on the undersides of Netherrack, and forms unusual coral-like stalactites. Glowstone has a luminance of 15.

Glowstone can be difficult to harvest, due to high ceilings, sheer cliffs and abundance of lava in the nether.

Breaking this block drops Glowstone dust, which may be used to re-craft the Glowstone blocks. Glowstone itself has no use in crafting; however, unlike torches, it isn't destroyed by water and continues to emit light even when submerged like Jack-O-Lanterns. Like all non-sunlight light sources, Glowstone blocks will cause nearby snow and ice to melt.

Uses
Glowstone is an infinite light source, but has a higher light level than Torches (15 as opposed to 14.) Because it is a block, players often make ceiling lights and lamp posts out of Glowstone by combining it with a Fence block. Glowstone blocks can also be used as lit paths, due to their interesting texture, or in docks or harbors so users in boats can see where to stop, as it can be placed in water. Harvesting Glowstone can be hard, as it is found usually on the roof of the Nether, above lava pits sometimes(making this harder!) A good way of doing this is by block jumping up to the glowstone. Then extent the column so it becomes a platform. Then you can mine it easily.



Trivia

 * Glowstone gives off the same amount of light as sunlight, so when they were first released they burned monsters.
 * As of the beta 1.6.6 update, the tool used to extract Glowstone Dust changed from a sword, when it acted like a glass type block, to a pickaxe, as it is now a stone type block. In the same update, the amount of Glowstone Dust needed to craft a Glowstone Block changed from nine to four, and the amount of Glowstone Dust dropped after destroying a Glowstone Block changed from 1 to a range of 2 to 4.
 * However, in the 1.0.0/RC2 update, Glowstone returned to being a glass type block.
 * Another way of collecting glowstone is to redirect a Ghast's fire ball at a Glowstone deposit, destroying the blocks with the resulting explosion. This could be useful if the Glowstone is very hard to reach.
 * In the coding, Glowstone Blocks are referenced as "lightgem."
 * It is more efficient to harvest Glowstone using Silk Touch Enchantment, since one block is equivalent to four Glowstone Dust, which usual harvesting is more likely to drop less than mentioned.
 * Beta 1.9 Pre-release 5 changed Glowstone's texture to [[File:Glowstone-Beta1.9 Pre5.png]].
 * Since Glowstone Blocks become entities when pushed by pistons, this momentarily stops it from giving off light.
 * Glowstone could have potentially been an item requirement to craft a lantern, as it also provides an infinite source of light. This would have also made lanterns relatively inaccessible and a risky item to get, as has been hinted at by Notch. However, Notch stated that lanterns were not going to be added to Minecraft at Minecon 2011.
 * Glowstone can be found in very large deposits, one of the largest recorded is over 97(on some non-official servers running 1.8.1 130+ block deposits have been recorded) blocks with 386 glowstone dust dropped.

Bugs

 * Glowstone can no longer be powered by redstone due to it being a "glass" block as of 1.0.
 * Even when mined with a tool with the Fortune Enchantment a single Glowstone block will not drop more than four dust(It is not known if it is a bug or not)