Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin that accumulated from ancient plants, buried for millions of years beneath soil and rock, where it hardened and transformed into a solid fossil substance. Its color ranges typically from golden to reddish-brown, though some pieces are clear and others are opaque. It is light and not a mineral, but is commonly included among gemstones for decoration.

Amber holds importance in two domains: commerce in the jewelry trade and paleontology. Frequently, insects, feathers, leaves, and other organisms became trapped in amber while it was still liquid, which has made amber valuable for observing ancient life.

Formation

When a tree is wounded or infected, it exudes a hardened resin from the wound. This resin hardens when exposed to air, losing volatile components of the original material and undergoing chemical transformation in which molecules bond together (polymerization). After burial in sediment, seawater, or beneath volcanic material, diagenesis and heat over long periods continue to harden it. An intermediate stage that has not yet fully transformed is called copal.

Sources

The most abundant source of amber is the Baltic region of northern Europe, particularly the shores of the Baltic Sea. Baltic amber is known to contain succinic acid among its components. Other notable sources include the Dominican Republic, where amber is found with many insect inclusions and a bluish variety, and Myanmar, whose amber is exceptionally old.

Uses

For thousands of years amber has been used for beads, ornaments, necklaces, and religious objects. It was also worked into folk medicines, though health benefits are not substantiated. In antiquity, people observed that when amber was rubbed it attracted light materials such as hair and small pieces of paper—an instance of static electricity. The word 'electricity' derives from the Greek word for amber (ēlektron).

Amber in science

Insects and plants embedded in amber provide information about ancient environments, as their structure is usually well preserved. However, living DNA extracted from amber cannot be scientifically verified—earlier claims of this kind cannot be replicated and have been labeled pseudoscience. For this reason, claims about restoring life from amber are not scientifically supported.