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Dust in Philip Pullman's Trilogy of novels '' His Dark Materials '' is a fictional form of Dark Matter (as we call it in our world), an Elementary Particle that is of fundamental importance to the novels. Dust is invisible to the human eye and can not be seen without the use of special insturments such as the '' The Amber Spyglass '' or a special Film . However, while humans can not see dust without the use of outside devices creatures such as the Mulefa are able to see dust with their own eyes. Unlike ordinary particles Dust is Conscious . It falls from the sky and is attracted to people (especially adults) and objects made by people, which makes it of great interest to the Church which thinks that it may be the physical manifestation of Original Sin . We later learn that Dust actually confers consciousness, knowledge and wisdom. This allows creatures who have the ability to see dust to identify other sentient and intelligent creatures. An example of this is when the Mulefa are able to distinguish Mary Malone as an intelligent being, because of the dust surrounding her, when compared to the other animals in the Mulefa 's world. It is Dust that provides the answers given by the Alethiometer , and by the I Ching system of Divination . Dust was previously known (in Lyra Belacqua 's universe) as ''Rusakov particles'' after their discoverer, Boris Rusakov, and has other names in other worlds, including ''sraf'' (in the world of the Mulefa ). Angel s, including The Authority , are formed when Dust condenses, but they are not in reality the human-like figures they appear to be. INSPIRATION It has been suggested that the term dust derives from how in the term "dust" is almost universally used to refer to the sensation, knowledge and entanglement with the world that inhibits Enlightenment . SEE ALSO
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