Ghostly Material

Potions for Muggles is four years old today. Hurrah!

Did you know that chemists have detected a ghostly trilobite? The ghost of an extinct creature? That would make the news. Turns out the ghostly impression only resembles a trilobite, but it’s still cool and interesting – at least to a quantum mechanic. Here’s a link to the short article in Chemical & Engineering News and the corresponding picture below. 

In preparation for Halloween, I decided to read the third book in the Dresden Files series titled Grave Peril since it highlights ghosts! Harry Dresden the protagonist is a wizard who runs his own detective agency. The novels are written in the first person from Dresden’s point of view, and they occasionally explain the world of magic and, in this book, ghosts and the spirit world. Here is Dresden’s description of ghosts.

“Ghosts are beings that live in the spirit world. They’re impressions left by a personality at the moment of death. They aren’t like people, or sentient spirits… Ghosts don’t usually inhabit a construct – a magical body. They’re just energy. They don’t leave any physical traces behind… Usually they aren’t visible, but they can make a body out of ectoplasm and manifest in the real world when they want to, if they’re strong enough… They can throw things around and stack furniture. There have been documented incidents of ghosts blotting out the sun for a while, causing minor earthquakes, all sorts of stuff – but it isn’t ever random. There’s always some purpose to it, something related to their deaths.”

The ‘imprint’ part is similar to the description in the Harry Potter books, but there are other differences, for example how ghosts can take on some physical manifestation. I find the ‘pure energy’ definition interesting – massless photons or electromagnetic (EM) radiation perhaps? Or maybe neutrinos, also known as ghostly particles. In Grave Peril, the boundary between the spirit world (where ghost reside with stronger definition) and the human-material world is weakened. There is some traveling back and forth between the two. Interestingly, when Dresden travels into the spirit world (the “Nevernever”) the description sounds very much like the Upside Down in Stranger Things. There is even a scene where Dresden and his knightly companion in the Nevernever notice energy emanations from living souls in the adjoining human-material world, much like what happens in Stranger Things when such a boundary is weakened.

How does the material world interact with the ghostly world? Grave Peril provides two examples. In one case, Dresden is grappling with the physical manifestation of a Nightmare. They tumble down a slope into water and we can read his thoughts. “You ever hear the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Remember the part with poor old Ichabod riding like blazes for the covered bridge and safety? Running water grounds magical energies. Creatures of the Nevernever, spirit bodies, cannot cross it without losing the energy required to keep those bodies here.” When they hit the water, the Nightmare’s body begins to melt away “like sugar in water”. Reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West melting when splashed with water by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. But the wicked witch wasn’t a ghost. Why would the physical manifestation of a ghost melt in water? Unclear. Maybe the author was thinking of the analogy that easily dissolvable materials might not be as solid as they seem. My G-Chem students should be able to pipe up at this point and discuss why low-charge ionic compounds (salts) fall into this category.

The second example is much more interesting. Dresden carries a sack of “ghost dust” in an attempt to trap a ghost. But not Ghostbusters-style. Here’s how he describes it. “The whole point of the ghost dust was that it was something extra-real, that it was heavy and inert and locked spiritual matter into place when it touched it. Even inside its bag it had become a sudden stress in the Nevernever… felt like it weighed thirty or forty pounds.” When asked what the dust is made of, Dresden replies “depleted uranium”. I don’t know about the vague-ish terms “extra-real” or “spiritual matter” but depleted uranium is simply lead (plumbum), element symbol Pb in the periodic table). My G-Chem students should be able to pipe up about lead being a very dense material that can stop penetrative radioactivity from beta-particles (electrons being shot out from a nucleus) and gamma rays (high energy EM radiation). So if ghosts are “pure energy” of the EM radiation variety, then all this seems fitting.

There’s a neat paragraph echoing my thoughts on why potions are needed in the magical world for complicated magic such as healing or turning yourself into someone else (think Polyjuice potion). Dresden gets healed magically by a frenemy, but there’s a big But. “If you think I should have been happy about getting a nasty cut closed up, then you probably don’t realize the implications. Working magic directly on a human body is difficult. It’s very difficult. Conjuring up forces, like my shield, or elemental manifestations like the fire or wind is a snap compared to the complexity and power required to change someone’s hair a different color – or to cause the cells on either side of an injury to fuse back together, closing it.”

Other than those tidbits, Grave Peril reads much like the first two books. While I found the first novel both interesting and novel, the second book was less interesting overall. The same is true of this third book. It feels like more of the same, but at a more frantic pace. I found myself skimming some parts – not a good sign for holding my attention. There are a couple of clever uses of ghosts towards the story climax, but they’re spoilers. There are also a few other minor interests in passing: an allusion to dreams akin to creating a “bubble in the Nevernever”, and a brief statement about magic and language. “Magic is a lot like language: it’s all about stringing things together, linking one thing with another, one idea with another. After you establish links, then you pour power into them and make something happen.” Sounds a lot like teaching and learning. Making links between ideas. Then maybe some brainpower is exerted, and something happens. Learning and magic. Both mysterious!