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Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

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Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#61

Post by kwhitefoot »

yougotborked wrote: post #12
mistermumble wrote: post #10

In addition to created diamonds, there are other stones that are different from and in some aspects better than diamonds. The best one seems to be Moissanite, which also has the rather pedestrian name of silicon carbide. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite Here's a strong opinion about why diamonds suck and you should go with alternatives: http://diamondssuck.com/ Lastly, a more dispassionate analysis: http:…

Yep, my now fiance loves her Moissanite stone. I actually got it from AliExpress and then had it appraised by a jeweler to check it's authenticity. Saved a bunch of money and got a great product.

Pictures?

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#62

Post by DennisP »

ars wrote: post #41
BlytheSchuma wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So would Moissanite be a better alternative for encasing nuclear waste batteries?

I hate that name because they do NOT run on nuclear waste - you have to make nuclear material specially for them. Ordinary waste from a power plant will not work! Anyway I think they use carbon for its electrical properties, not the strength.

They're planning to use carbon-14 from the graphite moderators of nuclear reactors. The U.K. has 95,000 tons of them in storage.

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-turning-nuclear-w...

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#63

Post by the8472 »

ericfranklin wrote: post #23

I've been running a lab-grown diamond company since 2005. I'd be happy to answer any questions in the morning.

Do you only grow gemstones or do also for industrial applications? And in case of the latter, how hard is it to make monoisotopic diamonds? I've read they have about the best thermal conductivity of any solid.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#64

Post by SixSigma »

inimino wrote: post #20
salmon30salmon wrote: post #2

This is wonderful! I can't comprehend the need to mine for diamonds any longer. Such a dangerous, dirty, damaging practice. It is sad to see that the industry is trying to paint these as inferior. I would love to see some sort of tariff or sanction placed on mined diamonds to make them restrictively expensive. There is simply no need for them any longer.

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

Except De Beers gets to keep the money, thus making it attractive to dig big holes.

If they had to hand it over to the Customs Officers those holes would suddenly be less attractive.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#65

Post by Tepix »

mojoe wrote: post #32

The fact that there is so much concern over how to differentiate mined diamonds from grown diamonds seems like insanity to me. I understand that the diamond trade has a vested interest in differentiating, but why would end consumer care? They're the exact same product to the unaided eye. This is a purely emotional response. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is that it's a misguided emotional response -- it s…

I don't get it either. It's very similar with pearls. As long as they look great and last as long as the natural variant, why should I care?

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#67

Post by scotty79 »

vezycash wrote: post #53

Let's give Moissanite a new catchy, less complex name. Else, it will remain unknown. I propose the name Moon Stone. Star fire would have been great but it'll be confused with Sapphire. See ffg for effect of company name pronunciability on market share, stock price, brand value... http://m.pnas.org/content/103/24/9369.full http://russelljame.com/Fluency_JFE_2013.pdf

Silicon carbide is a good name.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#68

Post by lordnacho »

joering2 wrote: post #37
inimino wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Step one - find a rare mineral that at this point has value close to zero. It is rare but worthless. Step two - obtain monopoly on mining it or control it as much as you can (buy spots with dense occurrence, etc) Step three - throw money at important and powerful people (s…

> Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires?

Various sports. Formula One, for instance, is the epitome of racing despite there being plenty of other ways to race cars.

Bottled water. Competes with a spout that everyone has several of in their home, yet people still pay up for it.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#70

Post by torrent-of-ions »

vegabook wrote: post #52
mojoe wrote: post #32

The fact that there is so much concern over how to differentiate mined diamonds from grown diamonds seems like insanity to me. I understand that the diamond trade has a vested interest in differentiating, but why would end consumer care? They're the exact same product to the unaided eye. This is a purely emotional response. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is that it's a misguided emotional response -- it s…

a large part of the point of a diamond is the emotional response. It's not just about how it looks, it's about how rare it is, even if only you know it.

I guess you mean you think it, because natural diamonds are not that rare.
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