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Perhaps someday Tiffany will consider synthetic gemstones, too. The nuclei of both natural and synthetic stones were born in the same supernovae, and the envir
by ISL 11y ago
Perhaps someday Tiffany will consider synthetic gemstones, too.
The nuclei of both natural and synthetic stones were born in the same supernovae, and the environmental and human costs are far smaller.
- p1mrx 11y agoThe patent on silicon carbide gemstones just expired a few months ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite#Applications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite#Applications
- hippo8 11y agoIsn't it sad, that we know non of this makes no sense at all. Yet, you and I, we do everything to get our hands on some of those "non-synthetic stones" in form or another.
- Animats 11y agoThe diamond industry has origin tracking requirements for diamonds, in something called the Kimberly Process. This is ostensibly to reduce sales of "blood diamonds" from conflict zones, but there's a strong suspicion that it's to keep synthetic diamonds from taking over the industry. The diamond industry dug itself a hole with its PR. The best diamonds are supposed to be "flawless", i.e. perfect crystals. The semiconductor substrate industry is in the business of making perfect crystals. Semiconductor crystal growing technology applied to diamond works quite well.[1] DeBeers keeps struggling to build machines which can distinguish synthetic diamonds from natural ones. They claim total success so far. Others disagree.[2] In any case, it now takes about $50,000 in equipment to detect good synthetic diamonds. As for synthetic diamond abrasives, those are about $165/kilogram.[3] That stuff is produced by the metric ton. [1] http://sciodiamond.com/ http://sciodiamond.com/ [2] http://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=46436 http://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=46436 [3] http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-synthetic-diamond-grit.html http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-synthetic-diamond-grit...