Editing The Book of Healing (section)

===Earth sciences===
[[Stephen Toulmin|Toulmin]] and [[June Goodfield|Goodfield]] (1965), commented on Avicenna's contribution to [[geology]]:<ref name="Goodfield">[[Stephen Toulmin|Toulmin, Stephen]]. and [[June Goodfield]]. 1965. ''The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time''. Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]]. p. 64.

([[cf.]] [http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=319 The Contribution of Ibn Sina to the development of Earth sciences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100314204805/http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=319 |date=2010-03-14 }}.)</ref><blockquote>Around A.D. 1000, Avicenna was already suggesting a hypothesis about the origin of mountain ranges, which in the Christian world, would still have been considered quite radical eight hundred years later</blockquote><!--
<ref name=Nasr>{{citation|last=Seyyed [[Hossein Nasr]]|title=The achievements of IBN SINA in the field of science and his contributions to its philosophy|journal=Islam & Science|volume=1|date=December 2003}}</ref>
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;Paleontology

Ibn Sina also contributed to [[paleontology]] with his explanation of how the [[Rock (geology)|stoniness]] of [[fossil]]s was caused. [[Aristotle]] previously explained it in terms of vaporous exhalations, which Ibn Sina modified into the theory of [[Petrifaction|petrifying]] fluids (''succus lapidificatus''), which was elaborated on by [[Albertus Magnus]] in the 13th century and accepted in some form by most [[naturalist]]s by the 16th century.<ref>{{citation|title=The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology|first=M. J. S.|last=Rudwick|year=1985|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=0-226-73103-0|page=24}}</ref> Ibn Sina made the following observation on the theories held at the time on fossils and the [[petrifaction]] of plants and animals:

{{blockquote|"If what is said concerning the petrifaction of animals and plants is true, the cause of this (phenomenon) is a powerful mineralizing and petrifying virtue which arises in certain stony spots, or emanates suddenly from the earth during earthquake and subsidences, and petrifies whatever comes into contact with it. As a matter of fact, the petrifaction of the bodies of plants and animals is not more extraordinary than the transformation of waters."}}