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- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -4/+52Possible, though not likely. The "Diamond Mafia" is trying to pressure congress into making artificial diamonds illegal, and I'm sure companies like Intel will have to jump through hoops to use them..
Meanwhile, carbon nanotubes are starting to show transistor-like functionalities in certain configurations (read: extremely dense memory cells). - eggo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37Driving down the over-inflated cost of diamonds would be a bonus! Suck it DeBeers!
- datter, on 10/12/2007, -9/+39Wow, imagine what the smile on the average rap star will look in a couple of years. Go techology... and go huge diamond grills.
- keane, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24wasn't this in wired 2003? the one with the naked girl with diamonds glued to her? not a dupe but kinda old.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ - sproutworks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20I would love to see the value of diamonds collapse. What good does it do the world to have the hardest mineral be too expensive for most applications? We are exploiting Africa and the only real benefactors are diamond companies. It would be nice to see diamonds being used in many common items, like knives and razors that don't get dull, and even cheap handheld drills could have diamond bits. I'm sure there are thousands of other applications that I am unaware of. I think a law to ban production of synthetic diamonds would be futile and counterproductive.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Maybe we should hope that diamond prices collaspe under the weight of the man-made ones. Countless numbers of people in the past 10 years have lost their lives over wars fought over nothing more than these stones. If people knew how some of those rocks made it to their hands, they would gladly op for somthing that looks just as nice but didnt lead to some guy getting his hand chopped off in Africa.
- jjk5, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18The only reason diamonds command any sort of premium is because they are presumed to be rare (they aren't). If people are manufacturing diamonds, you can expect the market to saturate and they will quickly lose their appeal.
- keane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14the specific article is http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html
no image of the cover at this one though ;) - Stopher, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14"This is stupid because it would diminish the value of Diamonds. Right now, Diamonds are a closed monopoly controlled soley by De Beers. It would be stupid to start growing Diamonds because it's value would be pretty much useless. Unless NASA plans on keeping this for themselves and only using it to enhance their current technology and not sell it or anything. We'll see..."
What's wrong with diminishing the value of diamonds? Right now they're price is held artificially high because of the De Beers monopoly, which would be fine except that it's fueling civil wars in Africa and little kids are having their hands cut off over it. There are real people in the world suffering over this crap.
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/courses/306/africa_diamond_wars1.htm
They started this technology to make faster semiconductors because silicon melts at temperatures diamonds will not. It will let them make faster compters so I don't think that is "useless". As a by product maybe they can stop a couple kids having their arms cut off.
And these aren't fake diamonds. They're real. If anything they're more flawless than natrual dimonds b/c they've been grown under optimal conditions. - geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"I really have a feeling artificial diamonds are going to EXPLODE."
Carbon nanotubes already explode if you take a picture of them with a flash bulb ;) - Moses, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Except they will be worthless. At least as far as the jewlery market goes. The simple fact that the supply can be virtually unlimited among other things, will keep the price down on these sorts of diamonds and the real ones will remain expensive and sought after.
- theone3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"I really have a feeling artificial diamonds are going to EXPLODE."
Dear god I hope not. I want one! (or 12) - kakapu4u, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You can't always tell them apart by ultraviolet light because natural diamonds have varying fluorescence... Many of these diamonds don't fluoresce at all, and some do so much that the color is noticeably different in sunlight.
You can still tell natural diamonds apart from Apollo diamonds in a couple ways though. Apollo says they laser inscribe a serial number on all of their diamonds so they're not confused as real diamonds. But this inscription is very small, and you can't see it with the naked eye. The other way to tell is by using the machine supplied by the diamond mafia. I don't know exactly how it works, but I think it looks into the structure of the diamond and notices when things just look "too good."
Apollo diamonds are better than natural ones. If you buy them, you'll be supporting technology, undercutting the diamond mafia, and receiving a superior product. Why aren't they mass producing them for the jewelry market? I'd guess they're being paid by the diamond mafia not to, similar to how the US government pays people with lots of land NOT to use it for agriculture. It keeps the prices higher.
I want one. - The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9But "worthless" is good for the computer market.
I like the idea of being able to have very fast CPU's (and very hot), for cheap. - aaronlidman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8anyone else see diamond processor cores coming?? freakin cool stuff.
- Ultim8Fury, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7When jewellery diamonds are graded by clarity and size how are you going to tell the difference ? If the claims are correct then these have greater clarity and size than nature can produce and can be produced significantly cheaper than digging up the real thing.
If these get mass production then the tradition of buying a large diamond engagment ring will make you suddenly look like a cheapscate.
The market would adjust to take this into acount though. Diamonds would become worthless but they aren't the only precious stone in the ground. Something else would step up to take pride of place based on it's rarity and desirability. - Surreal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9I don't see why the couldn't just enforce a regulation to state whether or not the diamond you own is manufactured or not... but then again, once it's bought and the sticker is removed, no one is going to be able to tell. Hmm,this could be a problem for all of those big diamond importers, but at the same time, be an enormous weight lifted off of the traditional male buying the diamond ring.
- kakapu4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I forgot about different diamond-making technologies... There's two main ones: Chemical Vapor Deposition and High Pressure High Temperature.
Apollo uses CVD, which was invented much more recently and produces higher quality stones. Gemesis uses HPHT, which has been around since the 1950's I think. They do sell gem quality stones now but not super cheap and not as good as Apollo's. http://www.gemesis.com/
Read more about diamond fab methods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond#Manufacturing_technologies - Vladk1000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7With this technology people will be able to make larger and larger diamonds until the price goes down. Most people buy diamonds because they're hard to get and expensive and this will ruin all that, but people with not enough money for real diamonds will be able to get these. So... I guess this is a good thing, but I'm not sure the richer people will like this because now everyone will be able to have diamonds.
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http://ultra-tech.blogspot.com/ - stixman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7chicken101, careful with your word usage. These diamonds aren't "fake" in any sense of the word. Neither do they look different under ultraviolet light. Their chemical composition is identical to that of mined diamonds. The main distinguishing factor is that lab-grown diamonds can be made essentially flawless, whereas mined diamonds usually have some sort of natural flaw.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"I don't see why the couldn't just enforce a regulation to state whether or not the diamond you own is manufactured or not... but then again, once it's bought and the sticker is removed, no one is going to be able to tell. Hmm,this could be a problem for all of those big diamond importers, but at the same time, be an enormous weight lifted off of the traditional male buying the diamond ring."
That would be a sellout. They could simply laser-imprint all manufactured diamonds with a serial number indicating they're fake, but why bother even having that option if you can use politics to insure they can't be made in the first place? Certainly some competition would be excellent for the market, it's just the diamond cartels don't want it to happen. And as time has shown, they usually get their way on these things... - arcman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Diamonds are already such a common gemstone, and with the poverty/child/slave labor the DeBeers cartel uses it costs them practically nothing to mine them.
The only reason they're worth anything is because the industry invented the notion that a diamond is the perfect, and required engagement proposal. If that mechanism were not in place, the rocks wouldn't sell for half of what they go for now. They don't appreciate in value whatsoever, and they have no resale market.
If I ever get married I hope it's to a girl that's wise enough to know diamonds are a practically worthless gem, and she would deserve better. - sfacets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5one good thing: flooding the market would get rid of the De Beers. Muahahahahaha! Bring it on!
Also it will stop the exploitation of children diamond miners. - tehsuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5There was a really good "Frontline" on the diamond trade and commercial-grade diamond production a few years back. If you're interested in this, I highly suggest watching it. Ok, so it is pretty old, but it's still informative of the history.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/info/1209.html - AeonTorpor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What IS a real diamond? It's just compressed carbon. If it can be manufactured, good, it's more efficient and will kill greedy, non-humanitarian friendly companies like DeBeers.
- GamingFox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6It has a lot of applications... for example, diamonds are the toughest minerals in the known universe, so if we can grow it cheaply, then we can put it into ship hulls, buildings, missile tip, planes (if not too heavy), or anything that require tough skin.
In my opinion, it has a huge military application. Can you imagine tanks with hulls laced with diamonds? (shiny but though) Can you imagine bunker buster with diamond shell? ("look at the falling star!" Boooooom)
Growing diamonds could have huge impacts on the world, not just jewelry market. - theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4About the cornflake analogy. I work in the lab at a major pasta producer in the US. If you think that there is ANY difference between the "premium" brands of pasta, and the store brand, you are absolutely correct. There are exactly TWO differences, the carton, and the price!
Any other perceived differences are PURELY psychological. - scbysnx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4look at his submittion list they all point to his blog. All he wants is attention
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4By buying a "made" diamond, not only do you not support the "diamond mafia", you stop supporting "blood diamonds", and also the destruction of the landscape that takes place with diamond mining.
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6This has actualy been done for a long time- that is- creating diamonds in the laboratory. Normally, you can tell the difference between a real and lab-made diamond. I believe that the fake ones glow in ultraviolet light. I'll digg this article, but it really doesn't go into the previous way to create diamonds in the laboratory- and let's say- the difference between them. The funny thing is- this is going to kill the diamond mining industry, if the process is as cheap and easy as the article describes. $5 a carat is insane. I'd like to know why this process hasn't been adopted (I believe the news on lab-grown diamonds broke in 2003), further.
- Sirocco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The interesting thing is that there is no actual difference between "real" and produced diamonds, aside from the fact that the produced diamonds do *not* have any flaws. Other than that, these are not like cubic zirconia... these are REAL diamonds produced by the exact same process... just sped up by several orders of magnitude. Another interesting facet of the situation is that these new diamonds can be tweaked to come in several different colors, so producing blue and yellow diamonds is trivial.
Go ahead and flood the market. Damn Debeers and their stranglehold on the market.
Oh, and can you say bye-bye to "conflict" diamonds? Thought so. - quasipalm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Read the website folks -- they are going to make a tiny laser inscription in all of their diamonds over .25 carats. If someone wanted to sell these as natural diamonds, they would be busted. And remeber, these aren't fake diamonds -- they are real, they are just manufactured instead of mined.
Now DeBeers can die a painful death. They've been inflating the price of diamonds for years! - gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"Yes, They're Real!"
—but are they spectacular?
Without pictures of the end product, there's no way to tell if this is good or just another patent taken by someone incapable of delivery. No digg. - jcostom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3surreal's right on the $$ there.. Speaking as someone who bought a 0.75 ct rock a bit more than 3 years ago, to the tune of around $4000 (it's a very high quality stone - my wife prefers quality over size in a diamond), this would have rocked, pun intended. With tech like this, I probably would have been able to go over a carat, probably even better quality, for 10% of the price (assuming markups, etc).
Thankfully, I'm blessed with a well-paying job, so I could afford to thrown down the cash. I feel bad for guys that get stuck with high-interest payment plans just to get the ring that gets things rolling.. - Nocturnal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah. Isn't there a monopoly and or some type of mafia that handles diamonds? Or is that all a conspiracy theory?
- kakapu4u, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Even though the article you linked to was from 1982 and therefore before major incursions by Gemesis and Apollo diamonds, it was still informative about the earlier history of De Beers and the global diamond market. Most of the stuff I hadn't read before, and it's nice to know who the individual and group players are in large scale diamond marketing.
Thanks for the link! Got anything about De Beers that includes their response to manufactured diamonds? I know Gemesis has been selling theirs for a while now, but Apollo seems to be dragging their feet in releasing gem quality stones at least in retail markets. I hope they hurry up and expand past sub-carat jewelry into 1-5 carat territory. Hell yeah. - JasonPrini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Diamonds are plentiful and cheap. DeBeers controls both the supply and demand which means they control the market.
Go ahead and try to sell a diamond. You'll find out how worthless they really are.
Cheap bulk diamond material will appear. Just as Aluminum was more expensive than gold in the early 20th century due to the expense of extracting it. A cheap way to purify Al was discovered and we now wrap our sandwiches in the stuff. - WRoach, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What is the difference between pure gold rings and and gold plated rings? None visually, only the price. People will always be willing to pay a premium for the real thing.
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cubic Zirconia, while very sparkly, ARE NOT diamonds (i.e. compressed carbon).
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6On a side note, the guy who submitted this link has been submitting *ALL* of his blog entries. See: http://digg.com/users/Technodigger =(
- addisonj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4A lot of people here are missing the point, these aren't diamonds you throw in a ring to sport your bling, these are for commercial applications. There have been very good "fake" diamonds for years that unless you put it under a microscope or in the eye of a trained diamond professional would never know the difference. Real diamonds will still have their appeal and the monopoly that is the diamond exchange will continue.
- YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Screw the cut stuff, I want to see 1"x1" diamond cube!
- timlopez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wouldn't something like this actually decrease the value of diamonds? The fact that they are not as rare would do that I think.
- Silencer7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4De Beers is doomed, and it's about goddamn time.
Check this link out for history:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond - digitalArtform, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Even natural, real, minable diamonds are much more common than people are led to believe.
- northLite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well that just shows how ridiculous expensive jewelry really is.
Most people cant even tell the difference between a 5000 dollar real diamond and 2 dollar cubic zirconium right now, when articial diamonds hit the mainstream it will be even more outrageous. - dimplemonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Diamonds are precious because they so much time is put into creating one naturally, so much effort is put into mining, and so much work is put into cutting them just right. If diamonds are this "easy" to create, then this prevents them from being precious. Although it should drive prices through the cellar for these manufactured diamonds, I wonder how much more one will pay for the real things. Provided there is a way you can tell the difference anymore.
I don't know if I like this. Digg on the story anyway. - toyotaboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2duh, hasn't anyone ever heard of diamondique? QVC has been selling them for 15 years now.
- DiddyWolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Diamond semiconductors, sweet.
- Drizzit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You have to realize that the diamonds are not being grown for Jewelery but for semiconductors. Diamonds can withstand heat that would make silicon catch on fire. Not that we have to give Intel any more incentives to produce mini sun's inside our computers.
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