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NIF Compresses Diamonds With 50 Million Atmospheres of Pressure
sciencehabit (1205606) writes The world's largest laser [the National Ignition Facility], a machine that appeared as the warp core in 'Star Trek into Darkness', has attained a powerful result: It's squeezed diamond, the least compressible substance known, 50 million times harder than Earth's atmosphere presses down on us. ... As the researchers report online today in Nature, the x-ray assault nearly quadrupled the diamond's density. "That's a record," Smith [one of the researchers] says. "No one's compressed diamond to that extent before." The blast pulverized the diamond into dust, but before the mineral's destruction the scientists successfully measured its density ... For a billionth of a second, the diamond, which is normally 3.25 times denser than water, became ... 12.03 times denser than water. ... Scientists have speculated that diamond worlds may exist elsewhere. If a solar system arises with more carbon than oxygen, then carbon should soak up the oxygen by forming carbon monoxide, leaving excess carbon to create carbon planets—which, under pressure, become diamond worlds. Thus, Smith says, the new experiment will probe the nature of such planets.
They are performing similar experiments with iron in an attempt to understand the properties of super-Earth cores.
Can someone explain this with a car analogy?
I see that mistake so often. It should be "star system" because only our star system is called "Solar system" because our star is called Sol.
So that's how De Beers keeps their monopoly, they dispose of extra diamonds... by crushing them with a really expensive laser...
By the time we're able to harvest diamonds from other planetary bodies we'll have perfected laboratory synthethis. Actually, we'll perfect that LONG before we start mining other planetary bodies.
Because I'm mildly insane or something, I bought a lab made sapphire online, and when it came in the mail, I promptly took it around to the local jeweler, and asked him to take a look at this stone I had. He sits down, looks at it for a bit, goes "Huh." and moves to a more powerful microscope, looks for a bit longer, and finally says,
"I don't see any flaws or inclusions, but I also don't see and bubbles, so its not glass.... I guess we can send it to a lab in New York and find out what it is if you want?"
At that point, I said that it was not that important, and took my rock and left, because I was not really sure how he would react to being told I already knew what it was.
The point is, we can manufacture perfect gemstones, better than nature makes them.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Disappointing that the Star Trek tie-in was mentioned but the link was omitted...
National Ignition Facility provides backdrop for "Star Trek: Into Darkness"
Can't sustain fusion, so let's use the nice shiny laser to zap things and pretend its science :-)
Yep. The main selling point of "natural" gemstones these days is that the lab-made ones are "too perfect!"
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It presses us from all sides with the same force (except for a minuscule difference due to different height of things). This is a real stupid beginner's mistake.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
While Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, and the longest serving Democrat in any national office, he wrote scathing commentary about Obama ignoring the Constitution and legislating from the oval office. Nobody is more democrat than Byrd. More recently, the distinguished Senator from Ohio wrote that Obama's handling of Obamacare is clearly unconstitutional.
I understand you're probably infatuated with the guy, but peek around the blinders once in a while.
Many years ago I had a friend who was a gemologist. He told me once that it's not at all hard to tell that a stone's synthetic once you have it under the microscope. Synthetic gemstones (Not diamonds; they're done differently.) are built up little by little on a rod, then cut, shaped and polished. No matter how well done they are, you can see the layers. Either the technique has gotten much better over the last several decades or the jeweler didn't know what to look for.
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which translates to 'No one had to bleed in a mine for seven cents a day to get this lab made gem, and as you know, bleeding in a mine is the definition of romantic."
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
I'm going to assume a 30/70 split, where 30% is better technique, and 70% my local jeweler not knowing to look for it.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Strictly speaking, there is only "unique" and "non unique", but there's no "more unique."
Apparently, they're doing experiments like this at the LHC too: http://www.theonion.com/video/...
The taxpayers bought a bunch of scientists some incredible equipment to help them develop the most amazing car ever. The new car the scientists promised would be faster than any rocketcar to cross the salt flats, more rugged than an MRAP, have more luxury than a Maybach, and be nearly free to operate because it would run on sea water.
As the decades slipped by and people asked these scientists "where's our shiny new ultimate car?" the scientists always gave the same answer: "We just got the first cough of ignition from the new motor and tha dashboard lit up, but we need a few more years (and more money) to complete it"
Now we got a press release that they have been using the super-car building machine to destroy diamonds, which they apparently found to be more interesting than making the super car they kept promising.
For "super car" substitute "fusion reactor", then get angry and demand that all involved be fired immediately for spending ANY time and ANY money at the National Ignition Facility doing ANYTHING not DIRECTLY involved in creating a working nuclear fusion reactor which is the whole reason their paychecks and that damned facility exist in the first place.
Strictly speaking, there is only "unique" and "non unique", but there's no "more unique."
True, but sadly, due to rampant misuse, there's no more "unique." :-)
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
as opposed to bitcoin itself.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Yep. The main selling point of "natural" gemstones these days is that the lab-made ones are "too perfect!"
Strictly speaking it's because they're "more unique" and therefore "rarer"....
Yet, oddly, the market for natural pearls - by which I mean ones that aren't "cultured", but are formed naturally - collapsed when farmed cultured pearls were introduced, and has never really recovered -- even though they are easily identifiable, far rarer, and "more unique" (I am quoting the misconstruction). Natural pearl production is lower today than it was a century ago. This is a good thing, since it takes pressure off of living communities of organisms, but it is also inconsistent behavior of the market/industry compared to other gemstones.
(I have an explanation for why this occurred for pearls - that "cultured" pearls are considered "real" pearls by the market - but laboratory diamonds are not considered "real" diamonds. Pearls were really, truly rare before culturing made them something everyone could buy -- thus cultured ones were accepted because they expanded the market into a mass market. Diamonds on the other hand were really, truly rare once, but that ended with the discovery of the African diamond deposits in the mid 19th century. After that time they were something everyone could buy, and required an international cartel to manage the supply to keep the price up (in addition to restricting the supply it began an unflagging sales efforts - "diamonds are girl's best friend" - to drive up demand). Artificial diamonds did not change the supply-demand situation, there was already a surplus of natural diamond, but the cartel does not wish for there to be "real" diamonds produced outside of cartel price control. Thus no one who deals in diamonds, and is thus dependent on cartel favor for their supply, will agree that an artificial one is "real".)
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj