A closer look
Pollen is not just modern allergy fuel; its microscopic armor is made of sporopollenin, a polymer so indestructible it survives deep in the earth for hundreds of millions of years. Geochemists mercilessly blast these tiny fossilized grains with lasers to measure their carbon and hydrogen isotopes, which lock in the exact sunlight and rainfall data from the week the plant bloomed. It is essentially an indestructible prehistoric weather station that tells us exactly how miserable the humidity was during the Jurassic period.
