News tagged with diamonds
Diamond light, brighter than the sun
Its the size of five football pitches and generates light 10 billion times brighter than the sun. As the Diamond Light Source celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, Penny Bailey visits one of the ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
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Researchers discover secret of weevil diamond-like coat
(PhysOrg.com) -- The diamond weevil (Entimus imperialis), also called sometimes as the Australian weevil, is a bug known throughout Australia as a pest, (another close relative resides in South America) as are ...
A new spin in diamonds for quantum technologies
(PhysOrg.com) -- To explore the future potential of diamonds in quantum devices, researchers from Macquarie University have collaborated with the University of Stuttgart and University of Ulm in Germany towards ...
Dec 20, 2011 |
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Quantum computing has applications in magnetic imaging
Quantum computing -- considered the powerhouse of computational tasks -- may have applications in areas outside of pure electronics, according to a University of Pittsburgh researcher and his collaborators.
Dec 19, 2011 |
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Vibration rocks for entangled diamonds
(PhysOrg.com) -- Diamonds are celebrated for their enduring beauty and hardness but they can also be a physicists best friend.
Dec 16, 2011 |
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Superhard carbon material could crack diamond
(PhysOrg.com) -- By applying extreme pressure to compress and flatten carbon nanotubes, scientists have discovered that they can create a new carbon polymer that simulations show is hard enough to crack diamond. ...
Giant super-earths made of diamond are possible
(PhysOrg.com) -- A planet made of diamonds may sound lovely, but you wouldn't want to live there.
Dec 05, 2011 |
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Controlled disorder -- scientists find way to form random molecular patterns
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a way to control how tiny flat molecules fit together in a seemingly random pattern.
Nov 30, 2011 |
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Amplifier helps diamond spy on atoms
(PhysOrg.com) -- An amplifier molecule placed on the tip of a diamond could help scientists locate and identify individual atoms, Oxford University and Singapore scientists believe.
Nov 12, 2011 |
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Under pressure: Ramp-compression smashes record
In the first university-based planetary science experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), researchers have gradually compressed a diamond sample to a record pressure of 50 megabars (50 million times ...
Nov 11, 2011 |
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Geologists explore clues to Earth's formation in diamonds
(PhysOrg.com) -- When jewelers inspect diamonds, they look for cut, clarity, color, and carat. When University of Tennessee, Knoxville, geologists Larry Taylor and Yang Liu inspect diamonds, they look for ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 08, 2011 |
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New research offers insight into long term sperm storage in animals and parthenogenesis
(PhysOrg.com) -- Recently an eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake gave birth to 19 offspring; not exactly headline news, except for the fact that the female had been separated from any male snakes for five years. ...
Nobel laureate puts the squeeze on hydrogen
Hydrogen, normally a gas, may act like a metal when squeezed under extreme pressure. In that state, competing chemical and physical effects determine its properties, said Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann, Cornell's ...
Oct 14, 2011 |
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New form of superhard carbon observed
An amorphous diamond one that lacks the crystalline structure of diamond, but is every bit as hard has been created by a Stanford-led team of researchers.
Oct 11, 2011 |
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Point defects in super-chilled diamonds may offer stable candidates for quantum computing bits
Diamond, nature's hardest known substance, is essential for our modern mechanical world drills, cutters, and grinding wheels exploit the durability of diamonds to power a variety of industries. But diamonds have properties ...
Oct 11, 2011 |
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Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond (from the ancient Greek αδάμας – adámas "unbreakable") is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions. Diamond is renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the strong covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. Those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools.
Diamond has remarkable optical characteristics. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Combined with wide transparency, this results in the clear, colorless appearance of most natural diamonds. Small amounts of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (lattice defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion (ability to disperse light of different colors), which results in its characteristic luster. Excellent optical and mechanical properties, combined with efficient marketing, make diamond the most popular gemstone.
Most natural diamonds are formed at high-pressure high-temperature conditions existing at depths of 140 to 190 kilometers (87 to 120 mi) in the Earth mantle. Carbon-containing minerals provide the carbon source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years (25% to 75% of the age of the Earth). Diamonds are brought close to the Earth surface through deep volcanic eruptions by a magma, which cools into igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a high-pressure high-temperature process which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earth mantle. An alternative, and completely different growth technique is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Several non-diamond materials, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond simulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have been developed to distinguish natural and synthetic diamonds and diamond simulants.
For more information about Diamond, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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