I find that if I have to explain something I'm looking at to other people, it helps tremendously with my own understanding.

I dislike purchasing new beads so I can study them up close, but I'm finding it's the only way to know for sure what the current "bead technology" is producing from various parts of the world.

This is especially true of plastic beads that are being made (or have been made) to imitate amber, and by extension, to imitate the original imitations like Bakelite and Galalith. Almost impossible to tell what plastic a bead is made from, just by inspecting photos, unless they have the unique "fingerprint" of sparse cracks seen on some old phenolic beads.

Attached is an example showing a phenolic resin bead next to an acrylic (also known as Lucite) bead. I had to reamer-test these before I could tell what they were made of.