Can a Materials Scientist Move Mount Sinau?
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MATERIAL MATTERS
Can a Materials Scientist Move Mount Sinai? Colin Humphreys Most readers will agree that materials science is a key subject for our future wealth and health, but probably few will concur that it is also important for reconstructing biblical history. However, it is my belief that the interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving we learn as materials scientists provides us with the breadth of thinking required to solve a wide range of fascinating historical puzzles. In this article, I will describe the science which may underlie two remarkable events recorded in the Bible: Moses’ obtaining water from a rock, and the fire blaze on the top of Mount Sinai. Why may materials science be more important than other physical sciences in studying biblical history? The director of a leading engineering company recently told me that he preferred to employ materials scientists to other scientists. I asked him why. “Because of the flexibility of their thinking,” he said. “They see connections between different subjects much more readily than do most physicists, chemists, or engineers.” I believe the same is true when applying science to biblical history. Materials scientists not only have a breadth of scientific knowledge, but also the flexibility of thought to be particularly good at applying their minds to complex historical problems. This requires not only interdisciplinary scientific skills but also the ability to be extradisciplinary, and bring in knowledge from history, ancient texts, and their interpretations. My interest in this intersection led me to an intensive investigation and collaboration with historians, linguists, scientists, and religious scholars over several years to look at the miracles described in the biblical book of Exodus and the subsequent publishing of a book with my conclusions and the detective work that led me there.1 I give a few examples here of some of the more materials-oriented findings. As an example, consider the “water from the rock” miracle recorded in the book of Exodus (17:5–6). Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt into the Sinai desert. The people were thirsty, so Moses 222
struck a rock with his staff and water gushed out. Most people, even most biblical scholars, believe this story to be a myth, because they think it is impossible to obtain water from solid rock. As I thought about this, it dawned on me that many solid materials are porous. For example, some ceramic materials prepared by sintering can have a high porosity. Similarly, there are porous metal foams. So I wondered if rocks could be porous. The answer is that some rocks are highly porous, and sandstone and limestone can absorb and store huge quantities of water from rain. In a desert, rocks undergo a particular type of weathering because of sandstorms, in which sand, dust, and organic matter from decayed plants and animals are swept against the rocks at high speed by the wind. Over time, this can result in a hard impervious crust forming on the surface of the rock, rather like a layer of cement. If t
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