Diamonds

To get us started, how about visiting The Nature of Diamonds, part of the Museum of Natural History's web site? This is one of those "everything you want to know about diamonds" sites. It begins by investigating what exactly a diamond is. Read about a diamond's composition (composed of one element only) and structure. Its structure is what gives a diamond its unique properties, also discussed in this section. Discover how diamonds are formed and where they are found. There are certain "indicator" minerals that occur with diamonds that geologists look for. The site has a history of diamonds down through the ages that makes interesting reading. As well, there are discussions of mining and distribution of diamonds around the world and their use in industry and technology.

Another site worth looking at is the Nova Online Diamond site. Here we find out the science behind a diamond's unrivaled brilliance. The gemstone primer allows one to compare diamonds with other precious and semi-precious stones. The interactive feature on this site is great. You get to build a carbon atom! You can learn a lot building your own atom, if you don't get blown to bits, and it is fun. You will need a Shockwave Flash plug-in to play with the atom builder.

There are famous diamonds. One such diamond is the Hope Diamond. This Smithsonian site details the history of the stone. Why is the Hope Diamond blue? It contains trace amounts of boron, which also give the diamond the ability to conduct electricity and to phosphoresces or emit a bright red light after being exposed to ultraviolet light. Both these properties are unusual for a diamond.

Another famous diamond is the Dresden Green (or Famous Diamonds: a brief history). It is thought that the diamond came into contact with radioactive particles briefly during its formation, causing the green colour. If the exposure is longer, a green skin or coating forms around the diamond, which can be removed with polishing. Diamonds with a body colour like the Dresden Green are extremely rare.

It takes Nature millions of years to produce a diamond. Do you think it would be possible to replicate this process in a laboratory in a few days or weeks? If you said no, then take a look at Diamond Makers . This is an interesting site. It relates the story of how the first synthetic diamond was made back in the 1950's in Stockholm, Sweden, and in the States by General Electric. Read the transcript of the program to learn how modern scientists have managed to synthesize gem-quality diamonds with the same properties of natural diamonds. Does it have De Beers, who controls the world diamond trade, worried? Sure does. Detecting real diamonds from synthetic ones is getting harder and harder.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic