amber (redirected from Stantienite)

amber, fossilized tree resin. Amber can vary in color from yellow to red to green and blue. The best commercial amber is transparent, but some varieties are cloudy. To be called amber, the resin must be several million years old; recently hardened resins are called copals.

The tree species that produced amber are now extinct. They included cedars and other conifers and broadleaved trees. The most famous source of the world's amber is the Baltic coast of Germany. Amber is also found off the coasts of Sicily and England and in Myanmar (Burma). In the Western Hemisphere, there are rich deposits in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the state of New Jersey.

Amber is of interest both for its decorative value and for the ancient, once-living inclusions that it preserves. Capable of being highly polished, it is the oldest decorative substance known. It was familiar to Paleolithic peoples and to the Greeks and Romans, who used it extensively in jewelry. Pliny recounts several instances of its artistic uses. Amber is used in the manufacture of beads, amulets, mouthpieces, cigar and cigarette holders, pipes, and other small ornamental objects.

When rubbed with a cloth, amber becomes charged with static electricity; Thales was familiar with its electrical properties. When destructively distilled, amber yields acetic, butyric, valeric, and other acids; water; and hydrocarbons. Baltic amber also contains succinic acid and is often called succinite. An essential oil (amber oil) is obtained from amber.

Leaves, flowers, insects, and small animals are frequently found in amber. Older fossils trapped in this way often represent the sole specimen of an extinct species. An especially rich bed of amber in New Jersey has yielded over 100 previously unknown extinct Cretaceous species dating back as much as 94 million years. Because of amber's preservative qualities, the DNA of the specimens trapped inside is intact, affording scientists a unique opportunity to study the DNA of extinct species.

Bibliography

See D. Grimaldi, Amber: Window on the Past (1996); G. and R. Poinar, The Amber Forest (1999).

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amber

Fossil tree resin that occurs as irregular nodules, rods, or droplike shapes in all shades of yellow with nuances of orange, brown, and, rarely, red. Milky-white opaque varieties are called bone amber. Hundreds of species of insects and plants are found as fossils in amber. Deeply coloured translucent to transparent amber is prized as gem material, and numerous ornamental carved objects and beads are made from amber. Amber has been found throughout the world, but the largest deposits occur along the shores of the Baltic Sea.

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amber

1. a yellow or yellowish-brown hard translucent fossil resin derived from extinct coniferous trees that occurs in Tertiary deposits and often contains trapped insects. It is used for jewellery, ornaments, etc.

2. a medium to dark brownish-yellow colour, often somewhat orange, similar to that of the resin

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amber [′am·bər]

(mineralogy)

A transparent yellow, orange, or reddish-brown fossil resin derived from a coniferous tree; used for ornamental purposes; it is amorphous, has a specific gravity of 1.05-1.10, and a hardness of 2-2.5 on Mohs scale.

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amber

traditional symbol of arrogance. [Gem Symbolism: Jobes, 81]

See : Arrogance

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(language)

Amber - 1. A functional programming language which adds CSP-like concurrency, multiple inheritance and persistence to ML and generalises its type system. It is similar to Galileo. Programs must be written in two type faces, roman and italics! It has both static types and dynamic types. There is an implementation for Macintosh. ["Amber", L. Cardelli, TR Bell Labs, 1984]. 2. An object-oriented distributed language based on a subset of C++, developed at Washington University in the late 1980s.