Tim W. Eagle, age 12, of Belmont, N.C., for his question:

WHAT EXACTLY IS AMBER?

Amber looks like golden gobs of frozen honey, though it is not made by bees. Actually, it is a gift from the plant world, made by stately trees that thrived on earth many millions of years ago. The Greeks called it elektron and, strange to say, our word electricity is coined from this ancient name for amber.
The story of amber goes back to the Tertiary Period, a chapter in the earth's history that began about 60 million years ago and ended about 1 million years ago. It was a restless period of volcanic activity, while new mountains were born and ancient lands sank below the sea.
Early in the period, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were dry land teeming with forests of splendid conifers. Like modern pine and fir trees, they oozed out gummy resins to seal off the scars of broken boughs and other woody wounds