FOREVER AMBER

THE ETRUSCANS PRIZED IT AS HIGHly as gold. The Greeks mythologized it as the tears of Apollo's daughters, solidified when they cried for their dead brother Phaeton. The Romans considered a single piece worth more than a slave. Cultures stretching from Central America to the Far East, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, have used it both as a powerful medicine and as a medium for exquisite jewelry and works of fine art.

Scientists, too, value amber. Trapped within the translucent, usually gold-colored substance are some of the most ancient examples of certain species known to science. The oldest ants, moths, stingless...