100 days of Mother/Earthbound

036: Spectral

Jeff had done everything he could to get good grades... he continued his terms at his boarding school, continued at a top 6th form in Summers, achieved an A* in mathematics, along with three As in physics, chemistry, and mechanics. He'd gone to university, and went to the very best: Toxford University.

He'd graduated with first class honours, and surprisingly enough, Jeff's father, Dr Andonuts, was there to see him.

And he was now settled in a cushy lab job, though he occasionally worked as an electrician for... friends. And at the moment, Jeff was trying to achieve a spectral image for the Zexonyte that was used in the phase distorter he travelled in oh-so-long ago. This was a personal, out of interest job, though Jeff told the grant payers that it could help mankind.

The experiment had gone to plan... but... there wasn't something quite right. If this was an unknown element, an excellent catalyst and energy assister... then... it wouldn't have this spectrum. Judging by how few black stripes were in the spectrum, and how much colour was there, the element was heavy. Also, Jeff knew it was grey, crystalline, and evaporated easily into a purple vapour. Jeff observed where the black stripes were on the spectral image...

One right at the violet end... one in the deep blue section... and a whole space of black between indigo and blue. In the cyan section, the black stripes were far more frequent, and beyond that... no black marks, apart from a large one at the red end.

This spectrum looked familiar... now, what familiar element has that spectrum, is mainly crystalline, but evaporates into a purple vapour... oh...

No...

...It can't be... that couldn't have been the vital catalyst that helped them save the world... could it?

Jeff lost concentration as a fellow scientist junior to him walked into the room.

"Hi, Jeff. Say, why are you doing a spectral image of Iodine? Weren't you doing it for that unknown substance?"

"That's the thing, Paul... that IS the unknown. It's Iodine. Iodine came from space... Iodine somehow acted as a catalyst and energy assister... do you know what this means?"

"That you did the experiment wrong?"

"NO!" Jeff shouted "No, Paul, don't you understand science? Science isn't about accepting theories as the truth straight away... it's about seeing what evidence is there, seeing if it supports or disproves a theory... and right until now our current theories on thermodynamics were proved by experiment... but don't you see? This is the disproof... the thing that will force us to modify, expand, and improve our theory, and make it closer to the truth... now do you see? This is SCIENCE IN THE MAKING!"

"So... um... we're wrong about everything?"

"No... one aspect of the accepted theory is wrong... yeesh, did you even graduate from uni?"

"Um... yes, Jeff... but there's no need to be condoning, Jeff... I saw a lot of your father then... you know, the famous bloke..."

"Oh... sorry. But I'm excited about this! Seriously, this could change everything! Everything!"

"Eh... I'm happy... for you... eh..."

And with that Paul left the room, and said "Hey! Jeff's found something out! Hey!"