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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross

Spice (Melange)  
  The spice must flow.  

The most important substance in the Dune universe.

Anything the Guild will transport, the art forms of Ecaz, the machines of Richesse and Ix. But all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on Tupile. It cannot be manufactured, it must be mined on Arrakis. It is unique and has true geriatric properties.
Technovelgy from Dune, by Frank Herbert.
Published by Putnam in 1965
Additional resources -

The people of Arrakis, or others who use a lot of spice, develop the Eyes of the Ibad, in which the whites of the eyes turn a deep blue. Huge harvester factories are carried to spice blows in the desert to process the spice in situ.

Compare to young blood - new blood for old from Methuselah's Children (1941) by Robert Heinlein, the Sprung-Samser treatment from This Immortal (1966) by Roger Zelazny, the anti-Tri-D shot from The Morning of the Day They Did It (1950) by E.B. White and the anti-agathic drugs from Cities in Flight (1957) by James Blish.

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  More Ideas and Technology from Dune
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