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> At a trade fair in Hong Kong on Tuesday De Beers unveiled its latest diamond verification technology, the coffee-machine sized AMS2 that costs US$45,000 – alr
by andrewla 9y ago
> At a trade fair in Hong Kong on Tuesday De Beers unveiled its latest diamond verification technology, the coffee-machine sized AMS2 that costs US$45,000 – already a substantial discount to the US$65,000 price tag of its predecessor. Within the first few hours of its release, over a dozen orders had flooded in, the company said.
All I can think when I read this is that of course they get orders -- all the companies producing synthetic diamonds want to get hold of this machine so that they can train their production process to produce synthetic diamonds that register as organic.
- theandrewbailey 9y agoMaybe I missed something: how exactly is a diamond "organic"? Do you mean "natural"?
- rhino369 9y agoone definition of organic is more or less natural. Think of "organic growth."
- ballenf 9y agoWould be very surprised if they don't vet the purchasers and lock them down with very, very strict terms. In fact, I'd be surprised if they weren't more so loaning instead of selling the devices, with the right to reclaim in case of "misuse".
- TheRealPomax 9y agoYou can't vet friends of friends. If a respected jewelry house in Hong Kong buys one, that in no way implies a synthetic diamond producer isn't best bar buddies with the jewelry house's owner and deals for access to the machine aren't made outside of business hours.
- OtterCoder 9y agoI was about to quibble with you about the usage of organic, but then I remembered that diamonds are literally just carbon, so, by chemistry, you're right.
- Pulcinella 9y agoFeel free to quibble with the PC! “Organic” in chemistry usually means compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen bonds. So diamonds, graphite and graphene, carbon mono- and dioxide, carbonates, and even cyanide* are traditionally considered inorganic forms of carbon. *Cyanides are considered inorganic even though hydrogen cyanide contains a C-H bond.
- andrewla 9y agoI was going to put organic in quotes, but then I had the same thought as you. Although, as the sibling post states, the use or "organic" in the chemistry sense is probably not precisely accurate. Still, better than advertising organic table salt!