And his fancy equipment did in fact come in very handy. For years, he and Mme Lavoisier occupied themselves with extremely exacting studies requiring the finest measurements. They determined, for instance, that a rusting object doesn’t lose weight, as everyone had long assumed, but gains weight—an extraordinary discovery. Somehow, as it rusted the object was attracting elemental particles from the air. It was the first realization that matter can be transformed but not eliminated. If you burned this book now, its matter would be changed to ash and smoke, but the net amount of stuff in the
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