Geology

"An artist to my father’s palace came, With gold and amber chains, elaborate frame: Each female eye the glittering links employ; They turn, review, and cheapen every toy."

"A bracelet rich with gold, with amber gay, That shot effulgence like the solar ray, Eurymachus presents."

"Not the soft gold which Steals from the amber-weeping tree, Makes sorrow half so rich, As the drops distill’d from thee. Sorrow’s best jewels lie in these Caskets of which Heaven keeps the keys."

"The abrupt manner in which whole groups of species suddenly appear in certain formations has been urged by several paleontologists . . . as a fatal objection to the belief in the transmutation of species. If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution through natural selection. For the development by this means of a group of forms, all of which are descended from some one progenitor, must have been an extremely slow process; and the progenitors must have lived long before their modified descendants. But we continually overrate the perfection of the geological record, and falsely infer, because certain genera or families have not been found beneath a certain stage, that they did not exist before that stage. In all cases positive palæontological evidence may be implicitly trusted; negative evidence is worthless, as experience has so often shown. We continually forget how large the world is, compared with the area over which our geological formations have been carefully examined; we forget that groups of species may elsewhere have long existed, and have slowly multiplied, before they invaded the ancient archipelagoes of Europe and the United States. We do not make due allowance for the intervals of time which have elapsed between our consecutive formations,—longer perhaps in many cases than the time required for the accumulation of each formation. These intervals will have given time for the multiplication of species from some one parent-form: and in the succeeding formation, such groups or species will appear as if suddenly created."

"There is another and allied difficulty, which is much more serious. I allude to the manner in which species belonging to several of the main divisions of the animal kingdom suddenly appear in the lowest known fossiliferous rocks. . . . The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the [evolutionary] views here entertained."

"I look at the geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing language, more or less different in the successive chapters, may represent the forms of life, which are entombed in our consecutive formations, and which falsely appear to have been abruptly introduced. On this view, the difficulties above discussed are greatly diminished, or even disappear."

"To discover the changes that have taken place in our globe, which can account for the remains of animals only fitted to live in warm climates being found in so northern a situation; and to explain the circumstances of human bones never having been met with in a fossil state, is the province of the geologist. To examine such fossil bones, and to determine the class to which the animal belonged, comes within the sphere of inquiry of the anatomist, and considerable increases its extent."

"The same Time which so ruthlessly assails the works and the monuments of man, was inspired with a zeal for the perpetuation of those which belong to the gods, really startling. The Vasty Cycles of Days since the Avatar of Time have been consumed by him but for this end. The Populations of the Old World seem to have lived that Time might solemnize their obsequies, and Stamp the forged Seal of Eternity upon their bones. The acts and Inscriptions of man dissolve into thin air, while the Races co-temporary with adolescent Time continue for our own and the years that are To Come. To touch the former with a breath is to blot them out, while the last are hermetically soldered down with stone, and coffined in the Centres of the Earth: so carefully guarded are they from rude and sacriligious [sic] hands, that to unrol the Cerements which bind them, it requires the most peculiar and subtle Genius of Skill, and fingers tipped each one with a most energetic soul."

"There are a hundred million fossils, all catalogued and identified, in museums around the world."

"The record of the rocks contains very little, other than bacteria and one-celled plants until, about a billion years ago, after some three billion years of invisible progress, a major breakthrough occurred. The first many-celled creatures appeared on earth."

"Beginning at the base of the Cambrian period and extending for about 10 million years, all the major groups of skeletonized invertebrates made their first appearance in the most spectacular rise in diversity ever recorded on our planet."

"To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to these assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer."

"The fossil evidence could be consistent with the idea of a Great Designer; perhaps some species are destroyed when the Designer becomes dissatisfied with them, and new experiments are attempted on an improved design. But this notion is a little disconcerting. Each plant and animal is exquisitely made; should not a supremely competent Designer have been able to make the intended variety from the start? The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not with a Designer of a more remote and indirect temperament)."

"And it stood still upon the sand of the sea. And I saw a wild beast ascending out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, but upon its heads blasphemous names. Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were as those of a bear, and its mouth was as a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to [the beast] its power and its throne and great authority."

"A single grain of sand can have an influence far out of proportion to its size, but when it gathers together with vast numbers of its colleagues, very strange things can indeed happen."

"...the noise made by a single grain of sand moving with the waves is one of a series of tiny perceptions that we accumulate to hear the roar of the ocean."

"To see a world in a grain of sand/And a heaven in a wild flower."

"The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust."

"For nature is the noblest engineer, yet uses a grinding economy working up all that is wasted to-day in to to-marrows creation;not a superfluous grain of sand for all ostentation she makes of expense and public works."

"There are as many stars in the universe as all the grains of sand in the beaches of the world."

"The huge variety of sand grains is astounding, and each one has a story to tell."

"Examining sand grains through the microscope is a wonderful way to find out about the biology, and ecology of the local environment."

"Every grain of sand is a jewel waiting to be discovered. ... When we walk along a beach, we tread upon millions of years of biological and geological history."

"A wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe."

"Unhappy they who raise their hopes upon the shifting sand."

"History is a child building a sand castle by the sea and that child is the whole majesty of man’s power in the world."

"And so castle made of sand fall into the sea, eventually."

"If you speak ill of another do not speak it...write it in the sand near the water’s edge."

"Who could ever calculate the path of a molecule? How do we know the creations of worlds are not determined by falling grains of sand?"

"I wrote my name upon the sand; I thought I wrote it on thine heart. I had no touch of fear, that words, Such words, so graven, could depart."

"You may smile at the fanciful structures I rear, And say, that my castles are built but on sand ; Like bubbles, that on the blue waters appear, That sparkle, invite, and then sink from the hand."

"...the entire universe was there within a grain for our understanding."

"The sand (Hindi: mitti) in the arena is especially holy to them. In Benares it [sand] comes from the Ganges and is mixed with Ganges water, mustard oil, and turmeric in order to keep it soft and supple. On special occasions, milk and clarified butter (ghi) are also added. The ground must be turned, loosened, and renewed periodically. Only the master (Hindi:ustad) is allowed to enter the new sand after he has honoured it with flowers and incense. The young men not only rub themselves with sand, they also wallow in it. Sand is the balm for their heroism."

"The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."

"It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out – it is the grain of sand in your shoe."

"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out – it’s the grain of sand in your shoe."

"The crust of a tan man imbibed by the sand; soaking up the thirst of the land."

"I don't like sand. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere."

"For Look! Within my hallow hand, While round the earth careens, I hold a single grain of sand And wonder what it means. Ah! If I had the eyes to see, And brain to understand, I think the Life’s mystery might be Solved in the grain of sand."

"The birth of a sand grain is a microscopic event, a flap of butterfly’s wings heralding greater change and a larger creation. Each grain carries the equivalent of the DNA of its parents and develops a character through its life and is moulded partly by its environment. Compared to the scale of a human life, however, the sand grains’ story is never ending, and rebirth is a regular event."

"Close to 70 percent of all sand grains on the earth are made of quartz."

"The sand grain has become a symbol of permanence and fragility of our – and - nature’s works."

"It has been estimated that on the order of a billion sand grains are born around the world every second."

"The sand grain is anonymous, waiting for rain and wind to sweep it away on an endless journey, to demonstrate its durability while its weaker companions fall by the way side. But it is called sand not because of what it is made of or its origins, bit because of how big it is."

"Sand is somewhat like beauty – we know it when we see it, or touch it, but it seems difficult to describe."

"Sand grains comes in variety of shapes, which can make measuring its size quite tricky."

"There are countless sand collectors around the world, and there have been for a long time. …Sand collectors call themselves as arenophiles or “sand lovers”- a mixture of Latin and Greek. The word arena derives from the ancient Roman habit of covering the ground in amphitheaters with sand (harena or arena in Latin) – to soak up blood. The pure Greek would be psammophile, and some sand collectors use this but it is commonly used also to describe plants and creatures that are sand-loving, forging a livelihood among the grains."

"Reflecting its potential fluidity and fickleness, sand, as the quintessential granular material, has become a symbol of instability and impermanence. The biblical admonition against building a house on sand may be exaggerated."

"Earth records its own history."

"The subjective element in geological studies accounts for two characteristic types that can be distinguished among geologists. One considering geology as a creative art, the other regarding geology as an exact science."

"Generally speaking, geologists seem to have been much more intent on making little worlds of their own, than in examining the crust of that which they inhabit. It would be much more desirable that facts should be placed in the foreground and theories in the distance, than that theories should be brought forward at the expense of facts. So that, in after times, when the speculations of the present day shall have passed away, from a greater accumulation of information, the facts may be readily seized and converted to account."

"GEOLOGY, n. The science of the earth's crust —to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already noted are catalogued thus: The Primary, or lower one, consists of rocks, bones of mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. The Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiary comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools."

"Geology holds the keys of one of the kingdoms of nature; and it cannot be said that a science which extends our Knowledge, and by consequence our Power, over a third part of nature, holds a low place among intellectual employments."

"Geology has shared the fate of other infant sciences, in being for a while considered hostile to revealed religion; so like them, when fully understood, it will be found a potent and consistent auxiliary to it, exalting our conviction of the Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator."

"Geology at first seems inconsistent with the authority of the Mosaic record. A storm of unreasoning indignation rises against its teachers. In time, its truths, being found quite irresistible, are admitted, and mankind continue to regard the Scriptures with the same respect as before. So also with several other sciences."

"Geology fully proves that organic creation passed through a series of stages before the highest vegetable and animal forms appeared."

"For a billion years the patient earth amassed documents and inscribed them with signs and pictures which lay unnoticed and unused. Today, at last, they are waking up, because man has come to rouse them. Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them. Layers become history and, released from the enchanted sleep of eternity, life's motley, never-ending dance rises out of the black depths of the past into the light of the present."

"Geology is rapidly taking its place as an introduction to the higher history of man. If the author has sought to exalt a favorite science, it has been with the desire that man—in whom geological history had its consummation, the prophecies of the successive ages their fulfilment—might better comprehend his own nobility and the true purpose of his existence."

"A permanent base on Mars would have a number of advantages beyond being a bonanza for planetary science and geology. If, as some evidence suggests, exotic micro-organisms have arisen independently of terrestrial life, studying them could revolutionise biology, medicine and biotechnology."

"We learn geology the morning after the earthquake on ghastly diagrams of cloven mountains, upheaved plains, and the dry bed of the sea."

"Experimental geology has this in common with all other branches of our science, petrology and palaeontology included, that in the long run it withers indoors."

"Geology gives us a key to the patience of God."

"Geology may be defined to be that branch of natural history which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature. It is a science founded on exact observation and careful induction; it may termed the physical history of our globe; it investigates the structure of the planet on which we live and explains the character and causes of the various changes in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature."

"Geology is as intimately related to almost all the physical sciences, as is history to the moral."

"The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle."

"Measuring nuclear yield depends on multiple parameters - the location and number of instruments, the geology of the area, the location of the seismic station in relation to the test site."

"Geological facts being of an historical nature, all attempts to deduce a complete knowledge of them merely from their still, subsisting consequences, to the exclusion of unexceptionable testimony, must be deemed as absurd as that of deducing the history of ancient Rome solely from the medals or other monuments of antiquity it still exhibits, or the scattered ruins of its empire, to the exclusion of a Livy, a Sallust, or a Tacitus."

"Astronomy concerns itself with the whole of the visible universe, of which our earth forms but a relatively insignificant part; while Geology deals with that earth regarded as an individual. Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, while Geology is one of the newest. But the two sciences have this in common, that to both are granted a magnificence of outlook, and an immensity of grasp denied to all the rest."

"Geology is intimately related to almost all the physical sciences, as is history to the moral. An historian should, if possible, be at once profoundly acquainted with ethics, politics, jurisprudence, the military art, theology; in a word, with all branches of knowledge, whereby any insight into human affairs, or into the moral and intellectual nature of man, can be obtained. It would be no less desirable that a geologist should be well versed in chemistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, zoology, comparative anatomy, botany; in short, in every science relating to organic and inorganic nature. With these accomplishments the historian and geologist would rarely fail to draw correct and philosophical conclusions from the various monuments transmitted to them of former occurrences."

"It was long ere the distinct nature and legitimate objects of geology were fully recognized, and it was at first confounded with many other branches of inquiry, just as the limits of history, poetry, and mythology were ill-defined in the infancy of civilization. Werner appears to have regarded geology as little other than a subordinate department of mineralogy and Desmarest included it under the head of Physical Geography. ...The first who endeavored to draw a clear line of demarcation between these distinct departments, was Hutton, who declared that geology was in no ways concerned with 'questions as to the origin of things."

"Strabo,... enters largely, in the Second Book of his Geography, into the opinions of Eratosthenes and other Greeks on one of the most difficult problems in geology, viz., by what causes marine shells came to be plentifully buried in the earth at such great elevations and distances from the sea. He notices, amongst others, the explanation of Xanthus the Lyclian, who said that the seas had once been more extensive, and that they had afterwards been partially dried up, as in his own time many lakes, rivers, and wells in Asia had failed during a season of drought. Treating this conjecture with merited disregard, Strabo passes on to the hypothesis of Strato, the natural philosopher, who had observed that the quantity of mud brought down by rivers into the Euxine was so great, that its bed must be gradually raised, while the rivers still continued to pour in an undiminished quantity of water. He therefore conceived that, originally, when the Euxine was an inland sea, its level had by this means become so much elevated that it burst its barrier near Byzantium, and formed a communication with the Propontis, and this partial drainage had already, he supposed, converted the left side into marshy ground, and that, at last, the whole would be choked up with soil. So, it was argued, the Mediterranean had once opened a passage for itself by the Columns of Hercules into the Atlantic, and perhaps the abundance of sea-shells in Africa, near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, might also be the deposit of some former inland sea, which had at length forced a passage and escaped."

"Geology differs as widely from cosmogony, as speculations concerning the creation of man differ from history."

"As late as the middle of the eighteenth century, when Buffon attempted to state simple geological truths, the theological faculty of the Sorbonne forced him to make and to publish a most ignominious recantation which ended with these words: "I abandon everything in my book respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which may be contrary to the narrative of Moses.""

"All geologic history is full of the beginning and the ends of species–of their first and last days; but it exhibits no genealogies of development."

"A geologist is a [Geological] fault-finder."

"An ice age here, million years of mountain-building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time."

"All that comes above the surface [of the globe] lies within the province of Geography; all that comes below that surface lies inside the realm of Geology. The surface of the earth is that which, so to speak, divides them and at the same time 'binds them together in indissoluble union.' We may, perhaps, put the case metaphorically. The relationships of the two are rather like that of man and wife. Geography, like a prudent woman, has followed the sage advice of Shakespeare and taken unto her 'an elder than herself; but she does not trespass on the domain of her consort, nor could she possibly maintain the respect of her children were she to flaunt before the world the assertion that she is 'a woman with a past.'"

"But I am now, perhaps, realizing too demonstratively for all my hearers, the truth of the incontrovertible axiom, that physical geography and geology are inseparable scientific twins."

"Union of geology with geography, without which the latter science is deprived of its firmest foundation"

"Caves are whimsical things, and geology on a local scale is random and unpredictable."

"The geologist takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archaeologist leaves it, and carries it further back into remote antiquity.”"

"Carl Sagan spoke fluently between biology and geology and astrophysics and physics. If you move fluently across those boundaries, you realize that science is everywhere; science is not something you can step around or sweep under the rug."

"Geology does better in reclothing dry bones and revealing lost creations, than in tracing veins of lead and beds of iron; astronomy better in opening to us the houses of heaven than in teaching navigation; surgery better in investigating organiation than in setting limbs; only it is ordained that, for our encouragement, every step we make in science adds something to its practical applicabilities."

"Beneath all the chaotic wealth of detail in a geological map lies an elegant, orderly simplicity."

"I always love geology. In winter, particularly, it is pleasant to listen to theories about the great mountains one visited in the summer; or about the Flood or volcanoes; about great catastrophes or about blisters; above all about fossils … Everywhere there are hypotheses, but nowhere truths; many workmen, but no experts; priests, but no God. In these circumstances each man can bring his hypothesis like a candle to a burning altar, and on seeing his candle lit declare ‘Smoke for smoke, sir, mine is better than yours’. It is precisely for this reason that I love geology."

"Darwin was a biological evolutionist, because he was first a uniformitarian geologist. Biology is pre-eminent to-day among the natural sciences, because its younger sister, Geology, gave it the means."

"Geologist is the only person who can talk to a woman and use the words ‘dike’, ‘thrust’,’bed’, ‘orogeny’, ‘cleavage’, and ‘subduction’ ihte same sentence without facing a civil suit"

"We got a course in picknicking at the university," said Dr. Bourbon. "It's called Geology, but it's really picknicking."

"Geology differs from physics, chemistry, and biology in that the possibilities for experiment are limited. As geology is essentially a historical science, the working method of the geologist resembles that of the historian. This makes the personality of the geologist of essential importance in the way he analyzes the past. This subjective element in geologic studies accounts for two characteristic types that can be distinguished among geologists: one considering geology as a creative art, the other regarding geology as an exact science."

"The increasing number of factors playing a role in the various complexes of natural phenomena are the origin of new, so-called emergent, laws and characteristics. Based on this principle of emergence, a hierarchy of sciences can be distinguished: physics-chemistry-geology-biology-psychology."

"The principle of "uniformitarianism" and the method of "comparative ontology" are examples of geologic rules."

"Geology is part of that remarkable dynamic process of the human mind which is generally called science and to which man is driven by an inquisitive urge. By noticing relationships in the results of his observations, he attempts to order and to explain the infinite variety of phenomena that at first sight may appear to be chaotic."

"Experiments in geology are far more difficult than in physics and chemistry because of the greater size of the objects, commonly outside our laboratories, up to the earth itself, and also because of the fact that the geologic time scale exceeds the human time scale by a million and more times. This difference in time allows only direct observations of the actual geologic processes, the mind having to imagine what could possibly have happened in the past."

"In collecting the primary geologic data, some personal capacities of the geologist (such as strong physique, perceptive faculties, perseverance, talent for drawing) are generally of much greater importance than in any of the sister sciences, which can rely on the quality of the instruments used in collecting primary data… Hans Cloos (1949) called this way of interrogation [by geologists] "the dialogue with the earth," "das Gespraich mit der Erde.""

"...may compare geologists and biologists to barbaric stone-age scientists, who, more or less hopefully, struggle along to reach the remote but ultimate goal of total "quantification" and "mathematization."

"Geology is an exact science too. Many factors of geological phenomena can be measured and grouped in "correlation structures," aspects of which can be treated mathematically."

"The very nature of the earth determines the place of geology among the sister sciences."

"It is quite common in geological jargon to use biological, medical, and even psychological terms, and it would definitely be an impoverishment of geological professional speech if the usage of these terms were abolished. But confusion and misunderstanding are sometimes introduced in this way."

"Physics and chemistry provide the natural laws which also hold in geology. Additional to those, however, the geologist works with some general concepts which are the more specific rules of the game for his scientific investigations. These concepts, such as the principle of "uniformitarianism," are his guide in the interpretation of the available facts. Because of the higher complexity of the evolution of the earth, our present basic concepts need still more footing and development than those of physics and chemistry. A repeated to and fro between induction and deduction is necessary."

"The geological evolution is a part of the general cosmic evolution which has an orientated course, according to the second main law of thermodynamics. Therefore the principle of uniformitarianism generally holds good for the not too distant past, in the times that life inhabited our planet (that is, for about one billion years)."

"Geologic phenomena and pathological symptoms are similar insofar that both may have various causes. It is the art of the diagnosing physician to recognize the disease; in the same way the geologist is not allowed to halt at the apparent. Before a sound interpretation is reached, many supplementary investigations and diagnostic observations should be done, perhaps each time starting from a different premise. This is in essence the application of the method of the multiple working hypotheses."

"The history of the earth is inseparably linked to that of our planetary system, and the gap between astronomy and geology is being filled by cosmogony."

"Applied geology may help to change the fear of atomic energy as a weapon of universal destruction into hope for mankind by applying it for new strategies to master the needs of raw materials in our industrial era."

"The world has arisen in some way or another. How it originated is the great question, and Darwin's theory, like all other attempts to explain the origin of life, is thus far merely conjectural. I believe he has not even made the best conjecture possible in the present state of our knowledge."

"An example of such emergent phenomena is the origin of life from non-living chemical compounds in the oldest, lifeless oceans of the earth. Here, aided by the radiation energy received from the sun, countless chemical materials were synthesized and accumulated in such a way that they constituted, as it were, a primeval “soup.” In this primeval soup, by infinite variations of lifeless growth and decay of substances during some billions of years, the way of life was ultimately reached, with its metabolism characterized by selective assimilation and dissimulation as end stations of a sluiced and canalized flow of free chemical energy."

"It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter. —"

"The fine-tuning of the universe, about which cosmologists make such a to-do, is both complex and specified and readily yields design. So too, Michael Behe's irreducibly complex biochemical systems readily yield design. The complexity-specification criterion demonstrates that design pervades cosmology and biology. Moreover, it is a transcendent design, not reducible to the physical world. Indeed, no intelligent agent who is strictly physical could have presided over the origin of the universe or the origin of life."

"It is as though a puzzle could be put together simply by shaking its pieces."

"Life could spread from planet to planet or from stellar system to stellar system, carried on meteors."

"Believing the first cell originated by chance is like believing a tornado ripping through a junkyard full of airplane parts could produce a Boeing 747."

"You know, my brothers, the nature of our business. The child you see before you, thanks to a talisman stolen from the powers of Earth, is able to take possession of the Blue Bird and thus to snatch from us the secret which we have kept since the origin of life... Now we know enough of Man to entertain no doubt as to the fate which he reserves for us once he is in possession of this secret. That is why it seems to me that any hesitation would be both foolish and criminal... It is a serious moment; the child must be done away with before it is too late..."

"Q: Strange, isn't it, Jean-Luc? Everything you know... your entire civilization... it all begins right here in this little pond of goo. It's appropriate somehow, isn't it? Too bad you didn't bring a microscope -- this is quite fascinating. Here they go... the amino acids are moving closer... closer...closer...Ohhhh! Nothing happened! You see what you've done?"

"How does it happen that once a crystal is started, it permits only a particular kind of atom to join on? It happens because the whole system is working toward the lowest possible energy. A growing crystal will accept a new atom if it is going to make the energy as low as possible. But how does it know that a silicon—or an oxygen—atom at some particular spot is going to result in the lowest possible energy? It does it by trial and error. In the liquid, all of the atoms are in perpetual motion. Each atom bounces against its neighbors about 1013 times every second. If it hits against the right spot of growing crystal, it has a somewhat smaller chance of jumping off again if the energy is low. By continually testing over periods of millions of years at a rate of 1013 tests per second, the atoms gradually build up at the places where they find their lowest energy. Eventually they grow into big crystals."

"You would, at first sight, think that a low-energy electron would have great difficulty passing through a solid crystal. The atoms are packed together with their centers only a few angstroms apart, and the effective diameter of the atom for electron scattering is roughly an angstrom or so. That is, the atoms are large, relative to their spacing, so that you would expect the mean free path between collisions to be of the order of a few angstroms—which is practically nothing. You would expect the electron to bump into one atom or another almost immediately. Nevertheless, it is a ubiquitous phenomenon of nature that if the lattice is perfect, the electrons are able to travel through the crystal smoothly and easily—almost as if they were in a vacuum. This strange fact is what lets metals conduct electricity so easily; it has also permitted the development of many practical devices. It is, for instance, what makes it possible for a transistor to imitate the radio tube. In a radio tube electrons move freely through a vacuum, while in the transistor they move freely through a crystal lattice."

"I feel like a white granular mass of amorphous crystals—my formula appears to be isomeric with Spasmotoxin. My aurochloride precipitates into beautiful prismatic needles. My Platinochloride develops octohedron crystals,—with fine blue florescence. My physiological action is not indifferent. One millionth of a grain injected under the skin of a frog produced instantaneous death accompanied by an orange blossom odor."

"Maybe tomorrow when He looks down Every green field and every town All of his children, every nation There'll be peace and good, brotherhood… Crystal blue persuasion."

"When Dr. W.M. Stanley of the Rockefeller Institute's Princeton station crystallized the virus which produces the mosaic disease of tobacco, there was a great hullabaloo among the biologists. And rightly so. Were these crystal alive? Apparently no more so than diamonds, glass, sand or other crystals with which we are familiar. Yet when virus crystals were put on a tobacco leaf, the mosaic disease spread like a slow fire over a whole field just as if it had been infected by living bacteria."

"A crystal is like a class of children arranged for drill, but standing at ease, so that while the class as a whole has regularity both in time and space, each individual child is a little fidgety!"

"I shall never forget the sight. The vessel of crystallization was three quarters full of slightly muddy water—that is, dilute water-glass—and from the sandy bottom there strove upwards a grotesque little landscape of variously colored growths: a confused vegetation of blue, green, and brown shoots which reminded one of algae, mushrooms, attached polyps, also moss, then mussels, fruit pods, little trees or twigs from trees, here, and there of limbs. It was the most remarkable sight I ever saw, and remarkable not so much for its profoundly melancholy nature. For when Father Leverk ¨uhn asked us what we thought of it and we timidly answered him that they might be plants: “No,” he replied, “they are not, they only act that way. But do not think the less of them. Precisely because they do, because they try as hard as they can, they are worthy of all respect.”"

"Tyndall declared that he saw in Matter the promise and potency of all forms of life, and with his Irish graphic lucidity made a picture of a world of magnetic atoms, each atom with a positive and a negative pole, arranging itself by attraction and repulsion in orderly crystalline structure. Such a picture is dangerously fascinating to thinkers oppressed by the bloody disorders of the living world. Craving for purer subjects of thought, they find in the contemplation of crystals and magnets a happiness more dramatic and less childish than the happiness found by mathematicians in abstract numbers, because they see in the crystals beauty and movement without the corrupting appetites of fleshly vitality."

"Any life form in any realm – mineral, vegetable, animal, or human – can be said to undergo “enlightenment.” It is, however, an extremely rare occurrence since it is more than an evolutionary progression: It also implies a discontinuity in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most important, a lessening of materiality. What could be heavier and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure, turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones.... Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all lifeforms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for and affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality."

"The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand."

"Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

"This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

"Making the best of things is … a damn poor way of dealing with them.... My whole life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand."

"With me, the present is forever, and forever is always shifting, flowing, melting. This second is life. And when it is gone it is dead. But you can't start over with each new second. You have to judge by what is dead. It's like quicksand…hopeless from the start."

"A quicksand of deceit."

"Henry "Mutt" Williams-Jones III: What is it, quicksand? Marion Ravenwood: I'm calm. Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr.: No, it's a drysand pit. Marion: I'm sinking, but I'm calm. "Indiana": Quicksand is a mix of sand, mud and water and depending on the viscosity it's not as dangerous as people sometimes think. Marion: For Pete's sake, Jones, we're not in school! "Indiana": Don't worry. There's nothing to worry about unless there's a… [suddenly there is a void collapse] …a void collapse."

"Sergeant Calhoun: What is this? [sees sign] Nesquik-sand!? Fix-It Felix, Jr: Quicksand? Oh, I'll hop out and grab you one of those vines. [tries unsuccessfully to hop] I can't hop. I'm hopless. This is hopeless! We're gonna drown here! Sergeant Calhoun: Stop thrashing. Stop—stop, you're making us sink faster. [Felix continues thrashing] Get ahold of yourself! [hits Felix]"

"I have died a thousand days Just to feel this quicksand And every movement is embraced By this sweet frustration"

"Our mother's philosophy It feels like quicksand And if she sinks I'm going down with her"

"Should I kiss the viper's fang Or herald loud the death of Man I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thought And I ain't got the power anymore"

"Your father's gone a-hunting In the quicksand and the clay And a woman cannot follow him Although she knows the way"

"Slow, sinking feeling Kills the mood you're conveying And it pulls me far down below"

"'Cause the world waits around But I keep slipping and losing ground"

"Stop you're talking down I lack the strength to sit or stand I lost my self confidence in the quicksand In the quicksand In the quicksand In the quicksand"

"Our love is quicksand So easy to drown They steal the gravity, yeah From moving ground"

"As If I ever had a choice All in the hands of the energy Once again feel the quicksand swallow me Tonight, I won't struggle"

"Some people fall in love and touch the sky Some people fall in love and find quicksand"

"Nothing but a castle built on top of a swamp of quicksand"

"I'm running in quicksand Something's haunting me The guilty past I've buried My mind won't let me sleep"

"Figure eighting in quicksand"

"That someone is you That someone is you That someone has pulled me up and out of cartoon quicksand Pulled me up and out of me"

"Feet first into the quicksand Every day we are surrendering Never straying from the game plan I keep hoping you will take my hand and stand up"

"Quicksand's got no sense of humour I'm still laughing like hell"

"You're nothing but a history A second here and then you're gone Quicksand, quicksand all around Turn the corner just beyond"

"Time's like quicksand Soon again, I'm standing naked in Wonderland"

"Deviate all by means in name 'Cause we all crawl in quicksand the same"

"The quicksand of time You know it makes me want to cry"

"These hands disappear as I wave farewell This gentle quicksand turns into hard times"

"You're dancing in quicksand"

"Through our predatory behaviors, systems of exploitation, and growth-oriented societies, we have lived in contradiction to one another, other species, and the planet for so long that we have brought about a new geologic epoch. We have hastened the end of the Holocene Era, which endured over the last ten thousand years, and thereby have precipitated the arrival of the Anthropocene Era–whose very name proclaims our global dominance and the severe environmental impact of Homo sapiens. In our current Anthropocene period of runaway climate change, the crisis in earth's history, resource scarcity, global capitalism, aggressive neoliberalism, economic crashes, increasing centralization of power, rampant militarism, chronic warfare, and suffering and struggle everywhere, we have come to a historical crossroads where momentous choices have to be made and implemented."

"The geometric growth rate of humans is unprecedented and never in the history of the earth has a single species grown to such bloated proportions, completely out of balance with living systems. The problem is only worsening. On conservative estimates the human population is expected to swell upwards to 8-10 billion by 2050, and perhaps expand significantly by 2100. Human population growth represents a crisis of the highest order, but of course it is only one aspect of multiple crises -- including species extinction and climate change -- merging together in a perfect storm of catastrophe that forms the daunting challenges facing humanity in the Anthropocene."

"... the cause of the sixth mass extinction is a very different type of cataclysm: expansion of one element of biodiversity to planetary dominance. In short, that is, expansion of the human enterprise—the explosion of the numbers of Homo sapiens and their domesticates and the near-instantaneous (in terms of geological time) burst of ecosystem altering and destroying technologies. That expansion has created a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene ... The term Anthropocene, meant to replace the formal, geologically accepted label of the Holocene epoch, encapsulates the consequences of humanity's activities on Earth's life-support systems. Indeed, humanity's planetary impact includes alterations of geological processes so profound as to leave stratigraphic signatures in multiple structures of the Earth's surface. These new structures are technofossils like plastics, metal junk, radioactive wastes and other synthetic material footprints ... Therefore, the term Anthropocene is increasingly penetrating the lexicon of not only the academic socio-sphere, but also society more generally (e.g. it is now an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary) and is useful for discussion of the sixth mass extinction."

"We are in an emergency situation in the Anthropocene epoch in which the disruption of the Earth system, particularly the climate, is threatening the planet as a place of human habitation. However, our political-economic system, capitalism, is geared primarily to the accumulation of capital, which prevents us from addressing this enormous challenge and accelerates the destruction."

"Driven by the Anthropocene engine, human population has grown exponentially, and individual societies have approached collapse multiple times over the past 8,000 years. The disappearance of the Easter Island civilization and the collapse of the Mayan empire, for example, have been linked to the depletion of environmental resources as populations rose. The dramatic decline of the European population during the Black Death in the 1300s was a direct consequence of crowded and unsanitary living conditions that facilitated the spread of Yersenia pestis, or plague."

"Our planetary impacts have increased since our earliest ancestors stepped down from the trees, at first by hunting some animal species to extinction. Much later, following the development of farming and agricultural societies, we started to change the climate. Yet Earth only truly became a “human planet” with the emergence of something quite different. This was capitalism, which itself grew out of European expansion in the 15th and 16th century and the era of colonisation and subjugation of indigenous peoples all around the world."

"The Anthropocene makes for an easy story. Easy, because it does not challenge the naturalized inequalities, alienation, and violence inscribed in modernity’s strategic relations of power and production. It is an easy story to tell because it does not ask us to think about these relations at all. The mosaic of human activity in the web of life is reduced to an abstract Humanity: a homogeneous acting unit. Inequality, commodification, imperialism, patriarchy, racial formations, and much more, have been largely removed from consideration. ... Are we really living in the Anthropocene, with its return to a curiously Eurocentric vista of humanity, and its reliance on well-worn notions of resource- and technological-determinism? Or are we living in the Capitalocene, the historical era shaped by relations privileging the endless accumulation of capital?"

"There'll be blue birds over The white cliffs of Dover; Tomorrow, just you wait and see."

"The sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thundered at the town, and thundered at the cliffs, and brought the coast down, madly."

"…in the centre of this Island there exists that wonderful Pagoda of Canari, thus called from its being supposed to have been the work of the Canaras. It is constructed at the foot of a great Hill of Stone of light grey colour; there is a beautiful Hall at its entrance, and in the yard that leads to the front back door, there are two human figures engraved on the same stone, twice as big as the Giants exhibited on the Procession of the Corpus Christi feast in Lisbon, so beautiful, elegant, and so well executed, that even in Silver they could not be better wrought and made with such perfection."

"…Next Morn before Break of Day we directed our Steps to the anciently fame’d, but now ruin’d City of Canorein; the way to it is so delightsome, I thought I had been in England; fine Arable, Pasture, and Coppices; thus we passed Five Mile to the Foot of the Hill on which the City stands, and had passed half a Mile through a thick Wood, peopled by Apes, Tygers, wild Buffolo’s, and Jackalls; here were some Flocks of Parockets: When we alighted, the Sun began to mount the Horizon over the Hills, and under our Feet, as if he had newly bathed his fiery Coursers; there appeared the Mouth of a Tank, or Aqueduct, out of a Rock, whose steaming Breath was very hot, but water cold: From hence it is thought the whole City to be supplied with Water; for as we ascend, we find such Places, where convenient, filled with Limpid Water, not over-matched in India: If it be so, (as I know not how to contradict it) that it should have its Current upwards, through the hard Rocks artificially cut, the World cannot parallel so wonderful a Water-course! From hence the Passage is uneasy and inaccessible for more than two abreast, till we come to the City, all cut out of a Rock; where is presented Vulcan’s Forge, supported by two mighty Colosses, bellied in the middle with two Globes. Next a Temple with a beautiful Frontispiece not unlike the Portuco of St. Paul’s West Gate: Within the Porch on each side stand two Monstrous Giants [the Chaitya Caves, the giants being Buddhas], where two Lesser and one Great Gate give a noble Entrance; it can receive no Light but at the Doors and Windows of the Porch, whereby it looks more solemnly; the Roof is Arched, seeming to be born up by huge Pillars of the same Rock, some Round, some Square, 34 in number. The Cornish Work of Elephants, Horses, Lions; at the upper end it rounds like a Bow; near where stands a great Offertory somewhat Oval, the Body of it without Pillars, they only making a narrow Piatzo about, leaving the Nave open: It may be an 100 Feet in Length, in Height 60 Feet or more. Beyond this, by the same Mole-like Industry, was worked out a Court of Judicature (as those going to shew it will needs give Names) or Place of Audience, 50 Feet square, all bestuck with Imagery, Well Engraven according to old Sculpture. On the Side, over against the Door, sate one Superintendent, to whom the Brachmin went with us, paid great Reverence, not speaking of him without a token of worship; whom we called Jougy [jogi], or the Holy Man; under this the way being made into handsome Marble Steps, are the King’s Stables, not different from the Fashion of our Noblemens Stables, only at the head of every Stall seems to be a Dormitory, or Place for Devotion, with Images, which gave occasion to doubt if ever for that End; or rather made for an Heathen Seminary of Devotes and these their Cells or Chappels, and the open Place their Common Hall or School: More aloft stood the King’s Palace, large, stately and magnificent, surrounded with lesser of the Nobility. To see all, would require a Month’s time; but that we might see as much as could be in our allotted time, we got upon the highest part of the Mountain, where we feasted our Eyes with innumerable Entrances of these Cony-burrows, but could not see one quarter part. Whose Labour this should be, or for what purpose, is out of memory; but this Place by the Gentiles is much adored…the Portugals, who are now Masters of it, strive to erace the remainders of this Herculean Work, that it may sink into the oblivion of its Founders."

"The Pagod or Temple of the Canarin, whereof I intended to give an exact and true account, is one of the greatest wonders in Asia; as well because it is look’d upon as the Work of Alexander the Great, as for its extraordinary and incomparable Workmanship, which certainly could be undertaken by none but Alexander. What I most admire is that it is almost unknown to Europeans; for tho’ I have made much enquiry, I do not find that any Italian, or other European Traveller has writ of it… I climb’d the bare Craggy Rock with the Idolater, at the top whereof on the East side the great Pagod is hewn out, with other small ones by it."

"... As hydrological reservoirs, glaciers are seen by the public mainly for their contribution to , which they provide through their melting. This is admittedly of global interest and may change our planet in the long term, especially if the two ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are included. Somewhat less well known is the fact that glaciers are active landscape shapers and have in the past shaped not only high mountain relief but also large areas of North American and Central and Northern European lowlands. Anyone wishing to understand the formation of these glacial land surfaces cannot avoid considering the processes and effects of glacier erosion and deposition."

"Glaciers record climate changes in two ways: the deposits left during successive advances and retreat provide a coarse record of climatic change which, with careful study, a little luck, and a good deal of skill, can be placed in correct chronological order and dated. A more detailed record is contained in ice cores from polar glaciers such as the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Isotopic and other chemical variations in these cores reflect past atmospheric circulation patterns, changes in temperature, and changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Changes during the past several centuries to several millennia can be quite precisely dated using core stratigraphy. Those further back in time are dated less precisely using flow models and proxy measures of other well-dated phenomena such as ."

"... sitting on a cold glacier, at night, in winter, with a stranger, in Iceland ... it was dark one minute, and then the next minute it wasn't. The , started to blaze. ... And this glacier we were sitting on — this bowl of ice — it started to pick up those lights. The whole glacier I was sitting on started to light up like a — like a . I felt like I was inside light."

"... A is the area of a newly-formed landscape in front of a glacier, which was recently ice covered but has since been exposed by glacier retreat ... There are several fundamental advantages of using glacier forelands as field laboratories for ecological purposes. First, their restricted physical size facilitates comprehensive investigation. Second, with a relatively severe climatic environment, they support relatively simple ecosystems. Third, recently-deglaciated terrain has experienced only a short history of modification by changing natural environmental processes. Last, but by no means least, with increasing distance from a retreating glacier, a longer time period has been available for ecosystem development: hence the pattern of ecosystems on the glacier foreland is commonly interpreted as a spatial representation of temperate changed as a vast natural experiment."

"Climate change is expected to exacerbate current stresses on water resources. On a regional scale, mountain snowpack, glaciers, and small ice caps play a crucial role in fresh water availability. Widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century, reducing water availability, hydropower potential, and the changing seasonality of flows in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one-sixth of the world’s population currently lives. There is also high confidence that many semi-arid areas (e.g. the Mediterranean Basin, western United States, southern Africa, and northeastern Brazil) will suffer a decrease in water resources due to climate change. In Africa by 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change."

"... Glaciers are formed on any portion of the earth’s surface that is permanently above the . This line varies locally in the same latitudes, being in some places higher than in others, but in the main it may be described as an elliptical shell surrounding the earth with its longest diameter in the tropics and its shortest in the polar regions, where it touches sea-level. From the extreme regions of the Arctic and Antarctic circles this cold shell swells upwards into a broad dome, from 15,000 to 18,000 ft. high over the tropics, truncating, as it rises, a number of peaks and mountain ranges whose upper portions like all regions above this thermal shell receive all their moisture in the form of snow. Since the temperature above the snow-line is below freezing point evaporation is very slight, and as the snow is solid it tends to accumulate in snow-fields, where the snow of one year is covered by that of the next, and these are wrapped over many deeper layers that have fallen in previous years. If these piles of snow were rigid and immovable they would increase in height until the whole field rose above the zone of ordinary atmospheric precipitation, and the polar ice-caps would add a load to these regions that would produce far-reaching results. The mountain regions also would rise some miles in height, and all their features would be buried in domes of snow some miles in thickness. When, however, there is sufficient weight the mass yields to pressure and flows outwards and downwards. Thus a balance of weight and height is established, and the ice-field is disintegrated principally at the edges, the surplus in polar regions being carried off in the form of icebergs, and in mountain regions by streams that flow from the melting ends of the glaciers."

"There are several ways of performing Tas'id, (a rising up) in the (the sublimatory apparatus), and the substances which the chemists sublime in it are Mercury, Arsenic sulfide, Sulfur and Sal-Amoniac. They are placed after treatment in the aludel, and the cover being fitted in position over it, a fire is lit. Then the substance rises up, and settles on the shelf..."

"The natural principles in the mines are mercury and sulphur. All metals and minerals whereof there be sundry and diverse kinds are begotten of these two. But I must tell you that nature always intendeth and striveth to the perfection of gold. But many accidents coming between change the metals, for according to the purity and impurity of the two afore said principles, mercury and sulphur, pure and impure metals are engendered. Sulphur is not the last amongst the principles because it is a part of the metal. Yea, and the principle part of the philosopher's stone, and many wise men have left in writing diverse and very true things of sulphur. For the blood of sulphur is that inward virtue and dryness which congeals quicksilver into gold, and imparts health and perfection in all bodies."

"If you prudently desire to make our elixir, you must extract it from a mineral root. For as Geber saith, you must obtain the perfection of the matter from the seeds thereof. Sulphur and mercury are the mineral roots, and natural principles, upon which nature herself acts and works in the mines and caverns of the earth, which are viscous water, and subtil spirits running through the pores, veins, and bowels of the mountains. Of them is produced a vapour or cloud, which is the substance and body of metals united, ascending, and reverberating upon its own proper earth, (as Geber sheweth) even till by a temperate digestion through the space of a thousand years, the matter is fixed, and converted into a mineral stone, of which metals are made."

"Volcanic ash, despite the name, is dense as rock and can cause significant damage to structures, power lines and communications. It is also toxic because it contains chemicals such as sulfur, chlorine or fluorine, and it can therefore affect water supplies."

"There is another type of exploding supernova that also seeds the Galaxy with elements. This is the . This explosion involves a binary system in which a star and an intermediate-mass star (a ) orbit each other. The two stars are so close to each other that the white dwarf gradually pulls a considerable amount of material from the outer envelope of the expanding red giant. At a certain point the white dwarf will acquire so much mass that it collapses under its own weight and produces an explosion that blasts the bulk of its material into the interstellar medium—mostly in the form of iron, but also some sulfur, and . Such explosions contributed about 70 percent of the iron we see today in the Galaxy."

"'isn't it brimstone morning?' 'I forgot, my dear,' rejoined Squeers; 'yes, it certainly is. We purify the boys' bloods now and then, Nickleby.' 'Purify fiddlesticks' ends,' said his lady. 'Don't think, young man, that we go to the expense of flower of brimstone and molasses, just to purify them; because if you think we carry on the business in that way, you'll find yourself mistaken, and so I tell you plainly. ...They have the brimstone and treacle, partly because if they hadn't something or other in the way of medicine they'd be always ailing and giving a world of trouble, and partly because it spoils their appetites and comes cheaper than breakfast and dinner. So, it does them good and us good at the same time, and that's fair enough I'm sure.'"

"Proposals for chemical weapons that arose during the American Civil War are described. Most incendiary and all biological agents are excluded. The described proposals appeared primarily in periodicals or letters to government officials on both sides. The weapons were usually meant to temporarily disable enemy combatants, but some might have been lethal, and Civil War caregivers were ill-prepared to deal with the weapons’ effects. Evidently, none of the proposed weapons were used. In only one instance was use against civilians mentioned. Among the agents most commonly proposed were cayenne pepper or other plant-based irritants such as black pepper, snuff, mustard, and veratria. Other suggested agents included chloroform, chlorine, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic compounds, sulfur, and acids. Proponents usually suggested that the chemicals be included in explosive artillery projectiles. Less commonly proposed vehicles of delivery included fire engines, kites, and manned balloons. Some of the proposed weapons have modern counterparts."

"From this theoretical structure of nature evolved the assumptions upon which alchemy was based: the unity of the universe and relatedness of all natural phenomena as expressed by the idea of from which all bodies were formed and into which they might again be dissolved, and the existence of a potent transmuting agent capable of promoting the change of one kind of material into another... This transmuting agent became known as the philosopher's stone, an object so quintessential it could not only transmute metals, but cure illness and prolong life....The process was composed of three stages. In the first, the alchemist heated the primary material, usually a blend of salt, mercury and sulfur, until it dissolved and turned black with decay. Under this continuous heat the liquid became dry, powdery and white. If all was done properly, the materials would eventually recombine and become a brilliant red, the color of the philosopher's stone."

"...let us rather choose Arm'd with Hell flames and fury all at once O're Heav'ns high Towrs to force resistless way, Turning our Tortures into horrid Arms Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise Of his Almighty Engin he shall hear Infernal Thunder, and for Lightning see Black fire and horror shot with equal rage Among his Angels; and his Throne it self Mixt with Tartarean Sulphur, and strange fire, His own invented Torments."

"The crude sulphur found in Sicily and other places is heated in pots, whereupon the sulphur melts and floats on the surface of the earthy matter which remains at the bottoms of the pots; the melted sulphur is poured into moulds, where it solidifies, and the earthy matter left in the pots is thrown away."

"In some parts of the East, sulphur is separated from the earthy matter wherewith it is mixed in the soil, by heating the crude material very strongly in earthen pots, each covered with another similar pot inverted on it. The sulphur melts and then becomes gaseous and the gaseous, sulphur condenses in the upper pots, which are comparatively cool; the fine yellow powder which condenses is approximately pure sulphur; the earthy impurities remain in the lower pots."

"Recent "clean coal technologies" and use of low sulfur fuels have resulted in decreasing sulfate concentrations..."

"Putting a low price on valuable environmental resources is a phenomenon that pervades modern society. Agricultural water is not scarce in California; it is underpriced. Flights are stacked up on runways because takeoffs and landings are underpriced. People wait for hours in traffic jams because road use is unpriced. People die premature deaths from small sulfur particles in the air because air pollution is underpriced. And the most perilous of all environmental problems, climate change, is taking place because virtually every country puts a price of zero on carbon dioxide emissions."

"Mineral bodies are vapors which have coagulated in nature in the course of long lapses of time, and the first things which coagulate are quicksilver and sulphur, for these and not water or oil (oleum) are the elements of minerals, for the first... (quicksilver) is generated from a water and the other (sulphur) from an oil. Upon these things there operates a gentle digestion constantly with heat and moisture until they are solidified and from them (metallic) bodies are generated by gradual mutation in thousands of years. For if they remain in their minerals, nature purifies them until they arrive at a kind of gold or silver. But by the subtlety of the artist, transmutation of this kind is made in one day or in a brief space of time."

"There are seven things that can be elongated by hammering at the furnace, namely Sol, that is gold, luna (silver), tin, copper (aes), iron, lead. These are formed in nature under the earth. Gold is generated in the earth by the great heat of the sun from excellent quicksilver and red and pure sulphur by digestion in the rocks for a hundred years or more; silver from pure quicksilver and pure sulphur digested for a hundred years. But copper (...cuprum instead of aes) from impure quicksilver and impure sulphur digested for a hundred years. ...Lead, the philosophers say, is made under the earth from impure and thick quicksilver and from the worst sulphur and is a crude mixture and not well digested. And lead... renders gold breakable... Tin, however, is made from excellent and pure quicksilver, but from the poorest sulphur impure and not well digested. Iron is from thick quicksilver and thick red sulphur, and is not sufficiently digested."

"Now, according to the ancient Sages there are two principles of things, and more particularly of metals, namely, Sulphur and Mercury; according to the Moderns there are three: Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, and the source of these principles are the elements; of which it therefore behoves us to speak first. Be it known to the students of this art that there are four elements, and that each has at its centre another element which makes it what it is. These are the four pillars of the world. They were in the beginning evolved and moulded out of chaos by the hand of the Creator; and it is their contrary action which keeps up the harmony and equilibrium of the mundane machinery; it is they which, through the virtue of celestial influences, produce all things above and beneath the earth."

"He can perform a thousand things, and is the heart of all. He can perfect metals and minerals, impart understanding to animals, produce flowers in herbs and trees, corrupt and perfect air; in short, he produces all the odours and paints all the colors of the world. ...Know friend, that sulphur is the virtue of the world. And though Nature's second-born, yet the oldest of all things. To those who know him, however, he is as obedient as a little child. He is most easily recognized by the vital spirit in animals, the colour in metals, the odour in plants. Without his help his mother can do nothing."

"Whip me, ye devils, From the possession of this heavenly sight! Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur! Wash me in steepdown gulfs of liquid fire! O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! O! O! O!"

"Of Sulphur, Pliny states, there are four kinds, but he makes no very intelligible characterization of their differences. "Live" sulphur (sulphur vivum), ocurring in masses or blocks is the only kind used in medicine. The others are used respectively by fullers, for the fumigation of wool, and the preparation of lamp wicks (...evidently ...as we use it in matches). Sulphur was also used in religious ceremonies, and for fumigating houses, and for fumigating (bleaching) cloth. The virtues of sulphur are to be perceived in certain hot mineral springs, and there is no substance that ignites more readily, "a proof that there is in it a great affinity for fire.""

"On November first, 1772, Lavoisier had deposited a sealed note with the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, in which he states that he has discovered the sulphur and when burned gained weight. "This increase of weight is due to a great quantity of air which becomes fixed during the combustion and which combines with the vapours." He expresses his conviction that the same is true of all combustions and s."

"His alchemical doctrine, that everything consisted of three elements—mercury, sulphur, and salt—is adapted from old authors, but he was the first to use the word "alcahest" to indicate the universal menstruum or , which at that time was a special object of research. He describes this liquor, alcahest, as having great power over the , comforting and confirming it, and preserving it from dropsy and other diseases that take their origin within it. ...Unhappily, he does not give precise directions for the preparation of this invaluable remedy."

"He arranged the several parts of man, his own universal elements, and the Aristotelian elements in triplets, thus :—"

"(1523-83)... adopted the reasoning of scholastic philosophy and thus weakened the force of his attack, but he pointed out many contradictions in the writings of Paracelsus and his followers, denied the existence of the philosopher's stone, and combated the idea that mercury, sulphur, and salt are the elements of living bodies."

"After a visit to Germany, France, England, and the Scottish lead mines, Thurneysser started mining and sulphur-extracting in 1558..."

"[T]he writings and labours of the alchemists were both extensive and important. ...[T]heir studies, although misdirected, were not... haphazard. The alchemists had a definite, and... logical, system of philosophy... [T]hey recognised—(1) the unity of matter; (2) the three principles—philosophical mercury, sulphur, and salt; (3) the four elements—fire, air, water, and earth; and (4) the seven metals—gold, silver, mercury, copper, , tin, and ."

"All metals and minerals consist of certain principles. These were at first called "mercury" and "sulphur," not the ordinary substances... but a philosophical mercury and a philosophical sulphur."

"Traces of these ancient conceptions are still to be recognised in the word "quick-silver," that is living silver, a literal translation of argentum vivum. A term "quick-sulphur" (sulphur vivum) was also in use, but it has long since disappeared."

"The mercury of a metal... represented its lustre, volatility, fusibility, and malleability; the sulphur of the metal, its colour, combustibility, affinity, and hardness."

"The salt of the was merely a means of union between the mercury and the sulphur, just as the vital spirit in man unites soul and body. It was doubtless devised to impart a triple form to the idea, in conformity with the method of the theological schoolmen."

"Mercury, sulphur, and salt were not three matters, but one, derived from the '."

"[W]hen an alchemist converted a metal into its oxide, or, as they expressed it, "made a " of it, he thought he had volatilised its mercury and fixed its sulphur. When he distilled ordinary mercury and found a solid residue in the , he called it the "sulphur" of mercury; when he found a sublimed product in the receiver (mercury bichloride), he termed it the "mercury" of mercury or "corrosive sublimate.""

"The more logical mind of Artephius Longaevus introduced a modification of this theory. He distinguished two properties in a metal—the visible and the occult. The former, comprehending its colour, lustre, extension, and other properties visible to the eye, he called its "sulphur"; the latter, comprehending its fusibility, malleability, volatility, and other properties not visible until after... special treatment, he called its "mercury.""

"They were thus able to apply the conception of the three principles to that of the four elements. Earth corresponded to philosophical sulphur, and water to philosophical mercury. Later, when they conceived philosophical salt, they devised a fifth element called "quintessence" or "ether." which corresponded to the third principle. Thus, if an alchemist distilled wood and obtained an inflammable gas, a liquid oil and a solid residue, he said that he had decomposed the wood into its elements—fire, water, and earth."

"The sulphur of a metal was its active principle; the mercury its passive; the salt was the link which united the other two."

"The sulphur, the property of dryness and heat, ultimately overcame the mercury, the property of wetness and cold, and thus changes were effected. ...[S]ulphur was the father, mercury the mother, and metals were conceived between them. In this expression the philosophical principles are meant, not the ordinary substances called sulphur and mercury."

"[A]lchemists accounted for the diversity of metals by five causes:— 1. Variation in the proportion of the principles, mercury and sulphur. 2. Variation in the purity of these principles. 3. Variation in the duration of the period of concoction to which the compound was subjected in the bowels of the earth. 4. Variation in planetary influences. 5. Variation in accidental influences."

"At a still later date it was argued that exact and natural sciences proceed by induction and deduction, and occult and spiritual sciences by analogy. Following out this line of thought the alchemists produced the following remarkable :—"

"These mystic alchemists interpreted the three principles in their own fashion. Mercury, the passive and female principle, was matter; sulphur, the active and male principle, was force; and salt, the middle term in the proposition, was movement, which applied force to matter. Or, expressed in another shape, mercury was the subject: sulphur, the cause; and salt, the effect. Symbolically, the theory was represented by an equilateral triangle, in one angle of which was the sign of sulphur or force; in the second, the sign of mercury or matter; and in the third, the sign of salt or movement."

"He asserted that the metals are composed of the mercury and sulphur of the philosophers, to which he added philosophical salt. The philosopher's stone, he said, is composed of the same materials."

"He strongly maintained the virtues of aurum potabile (liquid gold), and wrote a book entitled Medicinae Chymicae et Veri Potabilis Auri Assertio (1610). Another tract, De Lapide philosophorum et Lapide Rebis, related to the older alchemy. ...[I]n alchemical symbolism "Rebis" was the name given to the hermaphrodite figure representing the union of the great philosophical principles, sulphur and mercury, in the operation of making the philosopher's stone..."

"He observed that the fumes of sulphur blacken ; he purified by means of arsenic and ; he made artificial rubies and other precious stones by tinting glass with metallic oxides; he described fluor spar as a flux for metals and their oxides; he oxidised sulphur with ; he knew that alcohol is obtained by distilling the fermented juice of sweet fruits; he proved that the acid extracted from and from ferrous sulphate (green vitriol) is the same as that obtained by burning sulphur with saltpetre, that is to say, it is sulphuric acid; and he discovered tin tetrachloride (stannic chloride), which is sometimes called Liquor fumans Libavii. It is a truly remarkable record of practical work, considering the age in which Libavius lived."

"Paracelsus had discarded the disgusting decoctions of Galen and introduced chemical medicines, while Libavius and Sala had dismissed the fanatical conceptions which disfigured and almost nullified the teachings of both Paracelsians and Rosicrucians, but chemists still adhered either to the Aristotelian doctrine of the four elements, or to the later theory of the three principles (mercury, sulphur, and salt). (1577—1644) was the first to deny these propositions, and to begin a revolution in the philosophy of chemistry."

"Sulphuric acid he made by distilling green vitriol (ferrous sulphate), and by distilling nitre (potassium nitrate), and (double sulphate of potassium and aluminium). he prepared, but said it was of little use as a medicine."

"In 1648 he demonstrated the possibility of making blue vitriol () by boiling copper with sulphuric acid."

"[T]he most valuable work of Cavendish was contained in the two papers "Experiments on Air" (1784-5)... to determine the phlogistication of air... [i.e.,] the change in air when s are calcined in contact with it, and when sulphur, , or similar substances, are burned in it."

"He noticed that when copper and sulphur are mixed, they exhibit an , which increases with increasing temperature until finally they combine, and all traces of electricity disappear. Hence, he inferred that the same forces which, acting on masses at a distance, produce electric phenomena, when acting on atoms at small distances, produce chemical combination, the positive electricity of the one atom attracting and holding the negative of the other. In the positive charge is on one and the negative on the other, but these two charges have to be discharged through the electrode before the elements are set free. This is the reverse of what takes place in combination. Davy in this view differed from the electro-chemical theory of Berzelius."

"By 3000 BCE the Sumerians, perhaps while heating copper to make it more malleable, had discovered that more copper could be retrieved from the fire if the metal were heated with certain types of dirt and stones—that is, certain earths. These earths were the metal s, and the process they discovered, ', reduced metal salts to pure metal by the action of in the fire. The process of changing metal salts into pure metal is known as reduction because the metal without the accompanying oxygen, , or sulfur of the salt weighs less than the ore. Eventually metal workers learned to distinguish various metal-bearing ores by color, texture, weight, flame color, or smell when heated (such as garlic odor of ores) and they could produce a desired material on demand."

"The did not arrive in China until around 1500 BCE, and iron appeared only about 500 BCE, but by the beginning of their alchemical age, around 100 CE, the Chinese had knowledge of and ... mercury, sulfur and several of the common salts, such as ."

"Pliny recorded processes involving metals, salts, sulfur, glass, mortar, soot, ash, and a large variety of s, earths, and stones."

"[C]hemical weapons were not new to the world. Besieged towns had thrown pots of burning sulfur, asphalt and pitch on soldiers since at least 200 CE."

"Reminiscent of Aristotle, Jabir proposed... two exhalations: "earthy smoke" (small particles of earth on their way to becoming fire) and "watery vapor" (small particles of water on their way to becoming air). These, he believed, mingled to become the metals. But Jabir modified the Aristotelian approach by proposing that exhalations underwent intermediate transformations into sulfur and mercury before becoming metal. The reason for the existence of different types of metals, he believed, was that the sulfur and mercury were not always pure. He proposed that if the right proportions of sulfur and mercury with the right purity could be found... gold would result."

"Paracelsus' greatest triumph was the use of mercury to treat , the new disease of the day. ...Paracelsus may have heard of the treatment in his travels... or the discovery may have been serendipitous, based on... the extension of the mercury-sulfur theory of the Islamic alchemists to a tria prima... of mercury (soul), sulfur (spirit), and salt (body). But... there is no record of the number of people he adversely affected while experimenting with potions that were not effective, which may have been considerable."

"I am holding... one of the most extraordinary substances known to the human race... sulfur... known... since the dawn of humanity. ...[I]t was found in volcanic regions ...and one of the most remarkable things they found about this yellow solid ...is that it burns."

"It's burning with a blue flame... giving off the most foul and acrid fumes... So there is our "burning stone," which in old English was called brimstone."

"[O]ne of the things that's associated with sulfur and... its compounds is unpleasant smells."

"This is a volcano... that cloud of smoke... is... full of sulfurous fumes..."

"The word sulfur... goes... back to... the Hindu civilization... over 5,000 years ago. They had a word for sulfur... in... Sanskrit... sulvere... the enemy of copper. ...[T]hat is the ...destruction of the copper by the hot sulfur vapors... [T]he copper turns into... ...a black crumbly solid. ...The Latin [derived from sulvere] ...becomes sulphur."

"[S]ulfur beautifully burning in a gas jar full of oxygen... is a blue flame... [W]e now have a jar full of sulfurous fumes... [W]e allow the water to mix... The water has been colored green with a... ... As if by magic, the water... [turns] red and now it's gone yellow. ...[T]he ...gas ...when it reacts with water ...makes ."

"[I]t comes out of... volcanoes. ...[I]n ...human history things ...from underground have had... evil connotations... During the rise of various religions and... cultures sulfur was associated with evil... especially... in Christianity... connotations of hell, damnation... the dark underworld... punishment for... sins. ...[C]onnatations which we today ...know are not true..."

"[W]hen you heat fool's gold... some crushed s... [y]ou can see the appearance of this yellow color, and ...a little bit of crackling... . ...[T]he crystals... are breaking up into a powder ...because when you heat things up, they expand on the outside, but not on the inside. ...The yellow stuff is beginning to collect ...It is sulfur ..."

"[P]yrites is the most widely distributed mineral of sulfur ...the chemical name is iron sulfide. ...It has the formula FeS2 and ...thousands of years ago people ...recognized that when you heat it, you ...make sulfur ..."

"This mineral ...is .... It's lead sulfide. ...Beautiful silver crystals. If you heat this strongly, this too will make sulfur come off."

"There are many other sulfides, but this one is... special... Known in the ancient world as dragon's blood, and the reason... this red color. ...[W]hen they heated this strongly ...(This was particularly well known in ancient China and... in southern Spain.) ...it makes two... remarkable substances. One of them is sulfur... the other... is the liquid metal... mercury. ...[T]his fired up the imagination of ...ancient philosophers ...asking questions about ultimately what are all s made of."

"[T]he great Arabic alchemists... in the 8th or 9th century AD... came up with the idea that ultimately all metals are composed of sulfur and mercury..."

"[T]he sulfur-mercury theory... reasoning was... straightforward. They said... "If you mix this [mercury] with this [sulfur] in the right proportion, you can make any metal.""

"Science is very difficult, and... the ancient world... was... a world of correspondences. ...[S]omething ...could well be ...actually made of things that make it look like something. ...That was the cleverest way ...people used to view the world in those days."

"This sulfur-mercury theory... people continued to believe... for a thousand years."

"I have some beautiful crystals... these green ones and the blue ones... have been observed... [from] water evaporating on the side of lakes... close to volcanoes... [T]hey have... a glassy appearance. ...[T]he Sumerians, 2000 years ago ...described these ...The Latin word for glass is vitriolus [or vitrum] and so glassy substance became known as vitriols. ...[T]he medieval chemists discovered that if you heat these [crystals] very strongly... they give off a... terribly powerful smell and... a liquid which is capable of dissolving... metals. ...It was called oil of vitriol because it came from those glassy substances, but today we call it ."

"[T]he types of substances... made when metals dissolve in [sulfuric] acids...are called s. In the olden language they were called s. ...Here I have some beautiful crystals of copper sulfate ...blue vitriol. ...Here... iron sulfate... iron [or green] vitriol, which is the first sulfate... that they made the... sulfuric acid from, and... some crystals of white vitriol... . ...But I want to show you a most interesting [clear] mineral ...extremely beautiful. ...This comes out of the ground ...[A]lmost everyone ...would have lots of this in your houses. ...The mineral is called . The chemical name is ...[from which] we make plaster. ...Once again sulfur playing a key role in our everyday lives."

"We have wonderful uses of on an everyday basis. ...[J]ust about every ...motorcar [which runs on diesel or on petrol] ...has sulfuric acid ...inside the car battery."

"[T]he fact that sulfur has a low melting point of 115°C... has been exploited in making molds..."

"I'm going to melt the sulfur. ...The ...sulfur has molecules whose formulae are S8 ...They're pocket rings. They're like little crowns. ...[W]hen you get to roughly 160°C ...they break up ...and they start making a . They polymerize, like a plastic. ...I'm going to pour it into some cold water. ...like golden syrup. ...It's what we call plastic sulfur. ...[I]t's neither a liquid nor a solid."

"[the gas produced by burning sulfur]... has been used as a bleach and a fumigant since ancient Egyptian times."

"[A]bout 1,200 years ago... Al Razi... started making ... and... introduced marzipan into Europe... the tradition of using... sulfur for [marzipan] molds..."

"[A]n electric machine... first produced by ... is based on... attractor forces. ...[I]f you take a lump of sulfur and... rub it with a silk cloth... it will start to pick up bits of paper... hair... feather... [A]nother mineral... [Latin electrum]... had the same property. ...Otto von Guericke made a special globe out of sulfur ...and he described the remarkable reactions of things being ...attracted to it ...[I]t was the birth of ..."

"[T]he reason why is so interesting and why... the chemistry of sulfur is so interesting, is because sulfur is a very, very reactive element. Not only is it reactive, but it can form many different kinds of chemical combination..."

"The way we test... for... is to put in a burning splint... and you see it has gone out."

"This gas comes out of volcanoes as well as sulfur dioxide, and... is called . ...It has a phenomenally unpleasant smell of rotten eggs. Apart from that, it's unbelievably poisonous. ...[I]t undergoes an extraordinarily interesting reaction with sulfur dioxide. ...The lower jar is going yellow ...[W]e have made sulfur. ...also ...water. ...Two gases have reacted together to make a solid and a liquid. Secondly, two compounds of sulfur have made the element sulfur... Furthermore... it's... a redox reaction in which sulfur is reduced in one... and oxidized in the other. ...[M]any geologists believe that these two gases come out of volcanoes together and... make huge deposits of sulfur... found at the mouths of volcanoes."

"Sulfur is today obtained mainly from extraction from fossil fuels, from , from gas and from crude oil."

"This is a jar full of sulfur dioxide. ...[W]hen we pour solution, which is purple. ...It's lost its color. Let's try... [yellow] solution... Magic [as it turns ]? No, it's chemistry... [T]he sulfur dioxide is acting as a . It has caused them to change color on account of the change in of from +7 to +2, from +6 to +3."

"[T]here's burning, and... we lower it into sulfur dioxide. It carried on burning for a little while... [I]n sulfur dioxide, magnesium... breaks the bonds between the sulfur and the oxygen... itself becoming ... and releasing a little... sulfur... [T]hat's an example of sulfur dioxide as an ."

"Sulfur dioxide... is... present in many wines. ...Usually ...sulfur dioxide is used as a food preservative, ...but they usually call it ...SO3^2-."

"[S]ulfur is unbelievably reactive. ...Sulfur can form 4 hooks, 2 hooks, -2. s +4, +6 and -2, 0 in... the element..."

"is adding tiny amounts of sulfur to rubber to make it much stiffer. ...If not for ...vulcanization, we'd have no tires ...on motorcars, on airplanes or bicycles. We'd have no hoses in cars and so on... The world would be quite different. Vulcanization was invented by in 1840, one of the most important uses of sulfur today."

"These are the three ingredients in , which were known to the Chinese ...about 1,000 years ago: sulfur, and potassium nitrate. ...[T]hey're used in explosives and fireworks..."

"Therefore farewell, ye hills, and ye, ye envineyarded ruins! Therefore farewell, ye walls, palaces, pillars, and domes! Therefore farewell, far seen, ye peaks of the mythic Albano, Seen from Montorio’s height, Tibur and Aesula’s hills! Ah, could we once, ere we go, could we stand, while, to ocean descending, Sinks o’er the yellow dark plain slowly the yellow broad sun, Stand, from the forest emerging at sunset, at once in the champaign, Open, but studded with trees, chestnuts umbrageous and old, E’en in those fair open fields that incurve to thy beautiful hollow, Nemi, imbedded in wood, Nemi, inurned in the hill!— Therefore farewell, ye plains, and ye hills, and the City Eternal! Therefore farewell! We depart, but to behold you again!"

"Our villa, perhaps, you never have seen; It lies on the slope of the Alban hill; Lifting its white face, sunny and still, Out of the olives’ pale gray green, That, far away as the eye can go, Stretch up behind it, row upon row. There, in the garden, the cypresses, stirred By the sifting winds, half musing talk, And the cool, fresh, constant voice is heard Of the fountains spilling in every walk. There stately the oleanders grow, And one long gray wall is aglow With golden oranges burning between Their dark stiff leaves of sombre green, And there are hedges all clipped and square, As carven from blocks of malachite, Where fountains keep spinning their threads of light, And statues whiten the shadow there. And, if the sun too fiercely shine, And one would creep from its noonday glare, There are galleries dark, where ilexes twine Their branchy roofs above the head. Or when at twilight the heats decline, If one but cross the terraces, And lean o’er the marble balustrade, Between the vases whose aloes high Show their sharp pike-heads against the sky, What a sight—Madonna mia—he sees! There stretches our great campagna beneath, And seems to breathe a rosy breath Of light and mist, as in peace it sleeps,— And summery thunder-clouds of rain, With their slanting spears, rim over the plain, And rush at the ruins, or, routed, fly To the mountains that lift their barriers high, And stand with their purple pits of shades Split by the sharp-edged limestone blades, With opaline lights and tender grades Of color, that flicker and swoon and die, Built up like a wall against the sky."

"The sacred Mount, Crowned with the citadel of Latin Jove, Hangs o’er Alba’s Lake, and o’er the towers Older than Rome, their daughter. On its slopes Aricia smiles, and stately Tusculum. Beneath us Gabii, and, in shrouded sheen, Regillus, famed for Tarquin’s overthrow. Northward leans Tibur o’er her cataract,— Fortress of Sabine wars. Fidenæ there, And farther, Veii melts into the shade."