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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge

Allswell  
  An organic compound found (or placed) in food that calms and mellows those who partake of it.  

Allswell: A naturally occurring chemical that, when present in sufficient concentrations in the brain, engenders the feeling that everything is fine...

The food that you eat is probably grown from crops whose genes partake of the Allswell sequence, or even stronger stuff. Melancholy thoughts may never come into your mind at all. When they do, you have the power to dismiss them...

Technovelgy from Anathem, by Neal Stephenson.
Published by Morrow in 2008
Additional resources -

After one of the avout had left his concent, and had partaken of outsider foods, he had this experience.

Allswell! The thought hit me like a snowball in the nose. I'd been out of the concent for a little more than two months, eating extramuros food the whole time. Lio and Arsibalt and the others had probably made it to Tredegarh in less than a week - too brief a time for them to be affected. But I had been out long enough that the ubiquitous chemical must have taken up residence in my brain - subtly altering the way I thought about everything.

Philip K. DIck fans may recognize "hubrizine" from We Can Build You.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Anathem
  More Ideas and Technology by Neal Stephenson
  Tech news articles related to Anathem
  Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson

Allswell-related news articles:
  - Kava 'Anti-Energy' Drinks

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What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells?
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Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species

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