This is a bizarre take. There's no such thing as a "fake" diamond, just synthetic or natural. I can't imagine caring that a diamond is natural, especially when the synthetic can be engineered to have superior optical qualities.
Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
241–250 of 314 posts
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neal Stephenson has a book that assumes such an advance -- it's not a key component of the story, but definitely features large in the title : The Diamond Age.
That’s my favourite book of his, but I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future.
This is why I like Vernor Vinge - sci-fi authors tend to have a scientific focus based on their background, e.g. physicists tend to focus on physics world building - because he is a computer scientist and is capable of expressing ideas around that at many different levels.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Saying lab grown gems are fake is like saying "Is that Orchid you bought me a fake from greenhouse or a real one that someone picked from a jungle?" It's funny what massive marketing campaign can do.
They should do what they did with pearls: start referring to the lab-grown ones as "cultured diamonds."
One company does that.
DeBeers' big win was when they convinced the US FTC that synthetic diamonds had to be labeled as synthetic. They're real diamonds, and arguably not different from natural ones. The tests required to detect synthetics keep getting more complicated and expensive as the synthesis technology improves.
The old heat and pressure process was first used by General Electric to make a synthetic diamond in 1956. That's used today to make diamond abrasives by the ton. Making gemstones that way wasn't cost-effective until, in the 1990s, Gemesis, in Florida, got the process to work better. The process is touchy, but that's what computer control is for. DeBeers tried threats and intimidation. Unfortunately for them, the Gemesis CEO was a retired US Army general and didn't intimidate. The synthetic diamond gem industry, based in Florida, was soon going strong.
Then came controlled vapor deposition of carbon. The heat and pressure process forced some metal from the press anvils into the diamond, and this was detectable. The CVD process, using technology similar to that used to make near perfect crystal IC substrates, didn't do that. Synthetic diamonds could not longer be detected with standard diamond industry tests.
DeBeers developed more elaborate tests. Diamonds glow for a few milliseconds after being hit by a UV flash, and DeBeers makes testers which flash the target and then take a picture. The results differ for CVD diamonds, but not by much. There are videos of the difference, and it's now at the point where the precise symmetry of CVD diamonds is what distinguishes them. This blows away a basic sales pitch of the diamond business - the best diamond is a flawless crystal. Now they're up against a semiconductor materials technology that makes perfect crystals. DeBeers has been trying to spin this as "natural flaws" being important, after decades of promoting "flawless" as the goal.
CVD was originally really slow. Then the process got faster. Then more companies started using it. Now there's a glut of small diamonds. You can buy them in kilogram bags on Alibaba.
As for cubic zirconia, that's now so cheap that for $500 you can buy a gemstone 200mm across for about $500.
Most other gemstones have been produced in bulk for decades. You can buy ruby and sapphire rods and sheets, and it's not that expensive. The checkout scanners at Home Depot have a sapphire layer on top of the glass. You can drag tools across those all day for years before they scratch much.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also highly recommend Edward Epstein's Atlantic article on this too: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-yo... One of the best pieces of long-form journalism ever published, without a doubt.
Why was De Beers called “The Syndicate” in Israel? Was that where they had their supervillain lair or something? Almost all of the other names are trying too hard to be inconspicuous, and then they go with “The Syndicate”?
syn·di·cate
noun
noun: syndicate; plural noun: syndicates
ˈsindikət/
1. a group of individuals or organizations combined to promote some common interest.Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s my favourite book of his, but I’ve stopped recommending it to non-programmers because I think much of it’s magic is knowing how much of it is actually possible in the future.
This is why I like Vernor Vinge - sci-fi authors tend to have a scientific focus based on their background, e.g. physicists tend to focus on physics world building - because he is a computer scientist and is capable of expressing ideas around that at many different levels.
Yeah, Fire upon the Deep had literally the best first chapter of any AI-based scifi book I'd ever read (I listened to the audiobook).
I really wish Vinge would revisit that universe - Deepness in the Sky was great but it was a prequel of sorts.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#246You can't argue the genius that came up with "chocolate diamonds." You have a diamond that looks brown and ugly and can somehow make it desirable and even rare. While I swore off natural diamonds a long time ago, somehow I feel like DeBeers will be able to spin this and come out ok.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
As far as I know, they are used quite heavily in golf and tennis equipment. Hockey sticks tend to be carbon fiber. I think the baseball wood/aluminum debate can't handle another metal Snowboards and such do benefit from being able to bend. I could see it more in alpine snowboard equipment, but again, I'm not sure that carbon fiber wouldn't be the better bet.
Baseball has been moving away from lively metal bats. Too dangerous for the infield. Never ending debate when I played 6A baseball in HS. Now, slow pitch softball had Ti bats in the early 90's that added 10 mph. Even then some of the new composite materials out hit Ti.
> Even then some of the new composite materials out hit Ti
The issue is one PEOPLE DIE because of these bats and balls. (I'm old but I was one of maybe three people that could hit a home run now all 10 players can)
1) The other bats were so thin that you had to rotate the bat when you hit because the bats bend or will break. The ti bats are durable and you can still sue them. The issue is nothing really is better than ti but ti has a cost.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if they succeed (edit: with that fake-vs-natural campaign), what if the next step introduced artificial flaws and impurities?
It doesn't matter. If factory diamonds are cheap, the tacky hoi polloi will slap them on everything Swarovski-style, the appearance of diamond will no longer connote wealth, and the wealthy will drop them like a… rock.
This is on-point. Cultured gemstone-grade diamonds started becoming viable in the early '10s, and manufacturers were careful to provide better value than mined gemstones but not overly sell on it, instead stressing the ethical aspect of CVD/HPHT-treated stones. In addition, the process wasn't yet refined enough to undercut traditionally-mined diamonds by too much. If that changes, then the meaning of diamonds to the rich will as well.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why was De Beers called “The Syndicate” in Israel? Was that where they had their supervillain lair or something? Almost all of the other names are trying too hard to be inconspicuous, and then they go with “The Syndicate”?
syn·di·cate noun noun: syndicate; plural noun: syndicates ˈsindikət/ 1. a group of individuals or organizations combined to promote some common interest.
Of course the literal meaning of it isn't bad, but the connotation is pretty negative. Although perhaps it isn't there, it could just be the English translation that "sounds" that way.
Re: Lab-grown diamonds threaten viability of the real gems
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cheap titanium bikes are high on my list but I think the killer application is titanium hinges. Springs will last a lifetime. Looks like this is starting to happen alreadt: https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/titanium-hinges.html $0.25 for a hinge Titanium is light, but my favorite thing is it is next to impossible to bend. So anything that shouldn't bend will be better with titanium.
You can already buy a titanium bike (sourced from China) for a very reasonable place from Bikesdirect.com— mine was cheaper than a steel Surly Straggler for similar specs. Habanero also sells them for low, but not quite as low, prices: https://www.habcycles.com/ There seem to be a bunch of low-cost titanium manufacturers in China selling directly on eBay.
Ti bikes are all over a thousand on bikesdirect. I am thinking that ti bikes will cost just a hundred more than steel when ti becomes common.