Deep within the limestone cathedrals of the earth, where the sun’s influence ends and the air remains a constant, humid breath, time is measured not in minutes, but in the fall of a single drop of water. This is the realm of the speleothem, specifically the stalactite—a hanging architectural marvel born from the marriage of geology and gravity. Every jagged spire reaching down from the cavern ceiling is a testament to an impossibly slow persistence. It is a structure created by the “leakage” of the world above, where rainwater, enriched by soil carbon dioxide, becomes a mild acid that dissolves the bedrock on its downward journey. The birth of a…