Page 139 - Miracles Within the Molecule

hen ev er the word "crys tal" is men tioned,
peo ple often think of a crys tal vase or, rath er
more sci en tif i cal ly, the ice crys tals in a snow -
flake. But crys tal, in fact, is a flaw less and
mag nif i cent work of art at the molec u lar level.
The incom pa ra ble geom e try in crys tals amazed sci en tists
when they were first dis cov ered. The secret of their per fec tion was
real ized only very recent ly, as a result of the efforts of a great many
experts. In order to under stand Allah's geo met ri cal art ist ry, we must
first exam ine the three dif fer ent states that mol e cu les assume.

Three Different States Alter any Molecule's

Qualities
Most of us are aware of the three states of mat ter, of which the
best-known exam ple is water. In its nor mal room-tem per a ture
state, water is a liq uid. When fro zen, it assumes a solid form—
ice—and when heat ed it turns into a gas we know as steam. Most
mol e cu les can assume these three dif fer ent states of mat ter with out
los ing their molec u lar struc tures. However, not all mat ter assumes
these three dif fer ent states. For exam ple, if you heat gun pow der, you
can not obtain a gas e ous form of it. Gunpowder explodes when heat -
ed and becomes a total ly dif fer ent mol e cule. Molten glass does not
turn into a solid when chilled, it mere ly becomes hard—con tra ry to
what is gen er al ly thought, a glass beak er is actu al ly a liq uid! 63 The
rea son why we assume that glass is s a solid is that it is so very hard
and slow to flow. There is a thick er layer of glass at the bot toms of
glass es and vases that have sur vived from ancient times because glass
imper cep ti bly flows down wards—as can be seen in the rip ples on old
win dow panes.
The sub stance we call "crys tal" is a molec u lar struc ture dis -
played by sub stan ces in their solid form. To appre ci ate this bet ter,
con sid er that the gas e ous, solid and fluid states of water pos sess the

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