The Mysterious Desert Glass of the Sahara

What is this prized treasure of the sand?

Deep in the Sahara Desert, neat the Egypt-Libya border, lies a large stretch of sand littered with unique yellow-brown glass. This mysterious desert glass was discovered in 1932 but continues to command scientific study.

A changing fascination
Though it has been on modern science’s radar a relatively short time, desert glass was used as Pleistocene tools and was featured in Tutankhamen’s jewelry. But the glass’s purposes are very different to people today. Scientists believe the glass may be the result of a comet explosion in Earth’s atmosphere. If this is true, it may allow a greater understanding of the universe than anyone has ever attained before.

A new revelation
The more recent discovery of a black pebble at the site has caused even more excitement in the scientific community. Tiny diamonds inside the pebble, which form under very high pressure, suggest that the pebble is a piece of comet, never found on Earth’s surface before. Scientists are understandably keen to study this landmark specimen as it may give clues to the formation of the solar system. Though the mystery of the desert glass continues, scientists are growing closer to learning its secrets.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Sand or Sands? 教學主題: 沙要如何數？
Let’s talk about a very simple word today, sand. You know the stuff that you find at the beach. Steve, what should we remind our students of when they use this word?

Okay, we should remind them that most of the time the word sand is uncountable. That’s right, sand is uncountable, that means you don’t add an s at the end of it. For example, there is a lot of sand at the beach. If you want to count sand, you can use the word, grain. I think there’s a grain of sand in my eye.

Right, there is only one instance I can think of, that we use sand as a countable noun, and that is in the phrase, the sands of time.

Ah, yes, the sands of time are running out.

If you’ve ever seen how sand flows through an hour glass, you’ll  appreciate this saying, which means time is getting short, and you should do what you need to do right now.

Carpe diem.

Good one. Ken, carpe diem is a Latin phrase that means “seize the day”. If time is running out, we should grab hold of at the present before it’s too late.

沙是不可數名詞,
如果要數的話, 可以用grain,
a grain of sand 指的是一粒沙,
sand只有一個地方可以當可數名詞 the sands of time,
這是比較古老文言的用法指的是時間光陰歲月,
我們可以說 the sands of time are running out 常日將近, 時間不多了
我們可以想象 hourglass 沙漏裡的沙不斷的流逝
時間的流逝會提醒我們 Carpe diem 指的是 “seize the day” 把握今天

Language Lab
fascination n.
the state of being very interested in something, so that you want to look at it, learn about it etc [↪ obsession]
- This artist's work holds a special fascination you can't resist.
- The film introduces the fascinations of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
something that interests you very much, or the quality of being very interesting
- Vincent's fascination with car racing never ceases.

attain v.
to succeed in achieving something after trying for a long time:
- Steven Spielberg attained top director status when he was only 29.
- Cheetahs can attain a speed of up to 75 miles per hour.
- We need to put in a lot more effort to attain our goal.

be littered with something if something is littered with things, there are a lot of those things in it [= be full of something]
to cover (a surface) with many things in an untidy way

on the radar
A career in politics wasn't even on my radar (screen) at that point.
[=I wasn't thinking at all about a career in politics]

revelation n.
something that is surprisingly good, enjoyable, or useful revelation to
- The book is a revelation to me in terms of how to communicate with my children.
the act of suddenly making known a surprising fact that had previously been secret
- After the revelation of the political scandal, the senator was forced to resign.

specimen n. [spec 字根:看]
/ˈspɛsəmən/
a small amount or piece that is taken from something, so that it can be tested or examined;
a single example of something, often an animal or plant;
- The boy has a large collection of fossil specimens.
- The doctor took the patient's blood and urine specimens for analysis.

pebble n.
/ˈpɛbəl/
a small, round stone especially : one that has been made smooth by the movement of water
- a pebbly beach [=a beach with many pebbles]

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