[Jewelry making - Article 00409] - Re: [Orchid] Diamond developments

[Jen Beaven]

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>         For my own education, are there other lab grown diamonds? 

    Oh you betcha. Here is the fascinating article from "Wired" of a
    while back: The New Diamond Age by Joshua Davis
    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html 

    There are two companies using different techniques to produce
    low-cost diamonds that are indistinguishable from the dug-up stuff
    except by extremely expensive, sophisticated lab equipment. The
    coolest thing is that eventually, diamonds will be used for computer
    chips. Here are a couple of quotes from the article (it's several
    pages long and well worth reading): 

    ------ #1 ------------- 

    Aron Weingarten brings the yellow diamond up to the stainless steel
    jeweler's loupe he holds against his eye. We are in Antwerp, Belgium,
    in Weingarten's marbled and gilded living room on the edge of the
    city's gem district, the center of the diamond universe. Nearly 80
    percent of the world's rough and polished diamonds move through the
    hands of Belgian gem traders like Weingarten, a dealer who wears the
    thick beard and black suit of the Hasidim. 

    "This is very rare stone," he says, almost to himself, in thickly
    accented English. "Yellow diamonds of this color are very hard to
    find. It is probably worth 10, maybe 15 thousand dollars." 

    "I have two more exactly like it in my pocket," I tell him. 

    He puts the diamond down and looks at me seriously for the first
    time. I place the other two stones on the table. They are all the
    same color and size. To find three nearly identical yellow diamonds
    is like flipping a coin 10,000 times and never seeing tails. 

    "These are cubic zirconium?" Weingarten says without much hope. 

    "No, they're real," I tell him. "But they were made by a machine in
    Florida for less than a hundred dollars." 

    Weingarten shifts uncomfortably in his chair and stares at the
    glittering gems on his dining room table. "Unless they can be
    detected," he says, "these stones will bankrupt the industry." 

------ #2 -------------

    Diamond, it turns out, is a geek's best friend. Not only is it the
    hardest substance known, it also has the highest thermal
    conductivity - tremendous heat can pass through it without causing
    damage. Today's speedy microprocessors run hot - at upwards of 200
    degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, they can't go much faster without
    failing. Diamond microchips, on the other hand, could handle much
    higher temperatures, allowing them to run at speeds that would
    liquefy ordinary silicon. But manufacturers have been loath even to
    consider using the precious material, because it has never been
    possible to produce large diamond wafers affordably. With the
    arrival of Gemesis, the Florida-based company, and Apollo Diamond,
    in Boston, that is changing. Both startups plan to use the diamond
    jewelry business to finance their attempt to reshape the
    semiconducting world. 

    ------ (end of quotes) ------------- 

    IMO, ordinary computer parts can be beautiful enough to make jewelry
    from. I can't wait for the next generation of surplus chips to play
    with! 

/jen
-- 
http://pengcognito.com


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