The investigative assault upon the enigmatic asphaltenes has recently resulted in sig- nificant advances in many varied disciplines. Taken individually, each discipline exposes certain facets of asphaltenes, but each, alone, can never reveal asphaltenes from all van- tages. Even seemingly narrowly focused issues such as the molecular structures of asphal- tenes, or the colloidal structures of asphaltenes require a confluence of many lines of investigation to yield an understanding which differs from truth by diminishing uncer- tainty. An holistic treatment of the asphaltenes is a powerful...