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Fossil Amber Chemistry
Fossil resin's molecular constituency is mainly carbon and hydrogen atoms that readily form hexagonal rings. Molecular bonding between the rings increases over time (called polymerization), and the sticky resin becomes hard. There are other types of atoms in trace to larger amounts that alter physical properties and may be substrates to certain organic solvents. For all practical purposes, the hardened resin, or amber, is a "plastic". Just when the resin becomes amber, or a fossil, is not defined, and is perhaps not definable. It is even contentious, since fossil resin is a commercial product in a competitive market. Younger amber is often called copal, though it is essentially as hard and its physical properties differ little from older resins.

All fossil resins are substrates for both hydrophilic (e.g., alcohol or acetone) and lipophilic (e.g., benzene) organic solvents and will disolve in them. The solvents will create various weak chemical interactions with the resin in order to solubilize it. The most common of these interactions are the relatively weak van der Waals interactions (induced dipole interactions), the stronger dipole-dipole interactions, and the even stronger hydrogen bonds (interaction between O-H or N-H hydrogens with O or N atoms).

Diamonds (and most mineral based gems) are forever, but fossil resin (amber) is not. As an unstable organic polymer, amber is biodegradable, just like a plastic milk jug or fiberglass boat. Its many weak covalent bonds and weaker hydrogen bonds are easily broken, a process that is accelerated by electromagnetic radiation of all frequencies and heat; ultraviolet is especially damaging (do not expose amber to sunlight), while visible and infrared much less so. Thus, while amber is, in a sense, the perfect preservative of fossils, once removed from the environment in which it formed, it is destined to crumble into dust; the time is long compared to the human lifespan, but essentially instantaneous on a geological timespan. Diamonds, on the other hand, go on forever.

Amber, Natural Selection and Chemical Warfare
Fossil resin (a.k.a., amber) is the result at least in part of nature's oldest drama, predator versus prey. Science does not yet know when it appeared in the Kingdom Plantae's arsenal of survival tactics, but natural section has conserved and probably diversified its usage. In temperate climates, the pines are prodigious producers of resin, which is used to make turpentine. In tropic climates, the genus Hymenaea, a timber tree, is the prolific producer. The evolutionary advantages of resin are varied. The resin is exuded to seal wounds such as from wind, fire, lightening or insect predation. Resin also contains a diversity of chemical defensive weapons. Some of these repel insects, and others attract insects that attack harmful insects, or attract parasites of insects that attack the plant, or are toxic to harmful fungi; in short a diverse chemical arsenal.

We may have to come back to this topic again later. Before we do we are going to look at how people of faith have become a political party here in the USA next show