In Star Trek, one of the wonders of their science is the Tachyon Drive, which enables them to exceed the speed of light. Is this theoretically possible? A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that can travel faster than light. It is yet to be discovered in reality. If it were to exist, it would revolutionise the field of Physics, as the tachyon is a similar concept to the value of negative one (-1) in maths; it appears to exist only in the minds of theorists. So, if tachyons do turn out to have some form of reality, breaching the speed of light might not be the impossibility that we perceive it to be.

At the present, all the Laws of Physics are assumed to be constant and consistent throughout our universe. But this was not the case during the Big Bang, when the Space/Time Continuum was being created. There was an interval at the very start of time when matter, space, time and energy were interchangeable, when gravity didn't exist! This is referred to as Planck Time, when the Laws of Physics break down. It is theorised that these conditions occurred in the first 10-43 seconds of time (that's 10 to the minus 43 zeros). After this point, in the next fifteen seconds, things were still chaotic but space and time became distinct from matter and energy, and the first elementary particles started to form. Gravity asserted itself. And the colossal expansion of the universe was well and truly commenced.

The Platypus Frog a.k.a. the Gastric Brooding Frog a.k.a. Rheobatrachus silus was possibly one of the weirdest animals on the face of the planet. The females brooded their tadpoles in their stomachs, somehow switching off the digestive process during the brooding season. The tadpoles were unique, having no mouth or intestine at birth; they lived off their yolk sac while residing in mum's tummy. As they grew bigger, they would take up most the their mother's body cavity, to the point she would be unable to inflate her lung; she would have to absorb her oxygen though her skin. Once the tadpoles had exited via their mother's mouth, she was able to resume feeding and breathing in a more normal manner. Unfortunately, the sad word in my opening statement was the 'was', as these frogs are now considered to be extinct. They were first discovered in 1973 in South-east Queensland, and were last seen in the wild in 1980. Now you see it, now you don't!

True Grit
What does an oyster do with an itch? If a foreign object, such as a grain of sand, gets under an oyster's skin - between its mantle and its shell - sometimes a pearl is formed. The mollusc will secrete thousands of layers of nacre to smooth away the irritation. Nacre is that gorgeous, lustrous substance that lines an oyster shell. This process can take up to seven or eight years for a gem-quality pearl. The colour of the pearl is dictated by the tint of the oyster's nacre, and can see white, cream, grey, pink, blue or black. While other gems' size is measured by carat weight, pearls are sized by diameter in millimetres. So, most pearls begin life as niggling annoyance.

The Blood of an Ancient Tree
When you cut into a conifer, you get the 'blood' of the tree running down the trunk in thick, sticky goo. This 'goo' is the original substance that forms amber. Amber is translucent fossilized tree resin, a natural hydrocarbon that comes in many colours, including yellow, reddish, whitish, black, and blue. Unlike most gems, amber is flammable, and has other unusual properties; rubbing amber produces static electricity. The word electricity even comes from the Greek word for amber, "elektron." Sometimes insects and other objects will be trapped in a large piece of amber; a fact used with great effect in "Jurassic Park". Unfortunately, DNA molecules are a fairly fragile, and would not survive the fossilisation process.

Odds and Ends
There are a few other organic substances that were once popular for use in jewellery and other ornaments, but have fallen (quite properly) into disfavour. Ivory and tortoiseshell are both banned items, as they can only be obtained by the killing of an animal. One could argue that the pearling industry is cruel, but the oysters are farmed like cattle or mink, and are easily bred in captivity. Though both elephants and tortoises are long-lived, they produce only a few young over the course of their lives. They are almost impossible to 'farm'. And so, ivory and tortoiseshell, along with other items like scrimshawed whales' teeth and tiger-based products, are prohibited from sale in Australia.