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It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

washingtonpost.com

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Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#11

Post by Animats »

jacquesm wrote: post #5

SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk.

DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They keep coming out with more and more elaborate machines for detecting synthetic diamonds.[3]

[1] http://www.cvd-diamond.com/products_en.htm [2] https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/cvd-diamond.html [3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/28/de-beers-step...

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#13

Post by gertef »

Animats wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #5

SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk. DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They kee…

"The best diamonds are diamonds with slight natural flaws; that's what makes each one unique, like your love" -- my diamond dealer.

Next up: CVD diamonds with controlled random flaws.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#15

Post by cm2012 »

Animats wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #5

SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk. DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They kee…

Synthetic diamonds are not available to consumers much cheaper than real ones.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#16

Post by jacquesm »

Animats wrote: post #11
jacquesm wrote: post #5

SpaceX' master plan revealed. Poor DeBeers.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk. DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They kee…

There was a beautiful wired article about these:

https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#18

Post by tree_of_item »

cooper12 wrote: post #17

Can someone explain a concept to me? I never understood how gold rushes were profitable. If you suddenly found a mass quantity of a "rare" material, wouldn't it no longer be valuable since its value depended on its scarcity?

It takes a bit of time for that information about abundance to propagate through the economy, and for prices to update to reflect it. During that lag time people are able to get rich.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#19

Post by vram22 »

cooper12 wrote: post #17

Can someone explain a concept to me? I never understood how gold rushes were profitable. If you suddenly found a mass quantity of a "rare" material, wouldn't it no longer be valuable since its value depended on its scarcity?

Gold rushes tend to be more guaranteedly (I just made up that word, if it isn't one :) profitable to the people who promote them as being profitable - than to those who rush in trying to find the gold. Look up "picks and shovels".
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