Indeed, at room temperature and pressure, diamond is not thermodynamically stable with respect to graphite. So yes, under standard conditions, a diamond will turn into graphite, just incredibly slowly.
Unfortunately, what was most memorable to me about the opening of BioShock was that, as soon as you gain control of the player, the water splashing up in your face as you swim in the sea leaves drips on the screen, as if it were hitting the glass lens of a camera. There's my sense of immersion destroyed in the first few seconds!
In fact, "Something splashing on the lens, such as water or mud" is listed on Wikipedia's page on breaking the fourth wall as a "technical limitation" that can remind the viewer that what they are seeing is [a film, and] not real life!
For a good first estimate, simply take the US price, and change the $ to a £ symbol.
In the U.K., we're well accustomed to paying an awful lot more for tech goodies than do Americans. We'll complain a lot, but only to each other (or like me, on Slashdot), and nothing will get done about it.
Again, we mustn't conflate hardness, stiffness, and toughness!
I've been studying diamond for a while now, and have a fairly prominent webpage about diamond's material properties, and on three separate occasions I have been contacted in the following way:
A budding fantasy author is writing a book in which the protagonist has a sword made out of diamond, "because diamond is the hardest material of all!", and they wanted to run the idea past me first.
So I point out that, despite being very hard (i.e. resistant to indentation), diamond is in fact very brittle (i.e. not very tough), and indeed the very first time that our hero hits something with his diamond sword, it will shatter.
In one case, the author said that I had basically ruined his life by wrecking the whole concept of the book that he had been writing for the last few years. In subsequent emails, he was begging me to come up with a solution (e.g. diamond sword, coated with steel, etc.?)...
I go to YouTube once or Twice a week, I'd go more often if I could download individual clips from the site rather than play it in my browser.
That's just the point -- no, you wouldn't. You'd likely go to the site less often if you had your favourite clips waiting for you on your hard drive. Each time you want to show a friend a clip at present, you have to give the site another visit, and hence potentially more ad. revenue.
DeBeers will give you all sorts of fud saying that they will eventually have a process for telling the difference between the two, but they won't. Ever.
In my research, I get to play on the machine at number 27 in the list. Someone here must be able to beat that.
We use it (along with several other machines) to do modelling of the physical and electronic properties of atomic-scale defects in semiconductor materials, using a density-functional theory (DFT)-based code.
Now, please let me be the first pedant to point out that for them to have actually seen the beam inside the cockpit, then it must have been helluva dusty or smokey in there. Who were the pilots? Cheech and Chong?
Actually, I wonder what they use to "dope" diamond semiconductors?
For p-type diamond (i.e. the holes are the carriers), diamond is doped with boron. In fact, it's hard to get/grow diamond without some boron in there, hence most diamond is naturally p-type. Boron in diamond has an activation energy of 0.37 eV, which is low (i.e. good) as far as diamond goes, but pretty poor compared to dopant activation energies about an order of magnitude lower in silicon.
At present, for n-type (i.e. electron) diamond, phosphorus is the best dopant. It has an activation energy of 0.6 eV, hence the story is clearly not as good as it is with p-type doping.
However, my work modelling potential defects in diamond has predicted that a substitutional arsenic defect will have an n-type activation energy of around 0.3 eV, meaning that arsenic could be used to create n-type diamond on a par with boron-doped p-type material.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a triumph.
Indeed, at room temperature and pressure, diamond is not thermodynamically stable with respect to graphite. So yes, under standard conditions, a diamond will turn into graphite, just incredibly slowly.
FYI, based on their previous posts, Denmark.
[By the way, I recently "fled" the U.K. to the Netherlands :) ]
Karma-whoring Wikipedia-link explanation of mashups. Thanks!
Indeed, a memorable opening is important.
Unfortunately, what was most memorable to me about the opening of BioShock was that, as soon as you gain control of the player, the water splashing up in your face as you swim in the sea leaves drips on the screen, as if it were hitting the glass lens of a camera. There's my sense of immersion destroyed in the first few seconds!
In fact, "Something splashing on the lens, such as water or mud" is listed on Wikipedia's page on breaking the fourth wall as a "technical limitation" that can remind the viewer that what they are seeing is [a film, and] not real life!
Otherwise, the opening was quite good :)
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Phew, that was close.
For a good first estimate, simply take the US price, and change the $ to a £ symbol.
In the U.K., we're well accustomed to paying an awful lot more for tech goodies than do Americans. We'll complain a lot, but only to each other (or like me, on Slashdot), and nothing will get done about it.
Glad to hear that it's been published. Where can I download the PDF? I heard that Darl dies near the end, but I want to read it for myself.
Again, we mustn't conflate hardness, stiffness, and toughness!
I've been studying diamond for a while now, and have a fairly prominent webpage about diamond's material properties, and on three separate occasions I have been contacted in the following way:
A budding fantasy author is writing a book in which the protagonist has a sword made out of diamond, "because diamond is the hardest material of all!", and they wanted to run the idea past me first.
So I point out that, despite being very hard (i.e. resistant to indentation), diamond is in fact very brittle (i.e. not very tough), and indeed the very first time that our hero hits something with his diamond sword, it will shatter.
In one case, the author said that I had basically ruined his life by wrecking the whole concept of the book that he had been writing for the last few years. In subsequent emails, he was begging me to come up with a solution (e.g. diamond sword, coated with steel, etc.?)...
Now, if only they had had the foresight to name it the Union of Europe, then I could have registered sq.ue, an excellent domain name.
Best regards,
Steve Sque.
In my research, I get to play on the machine at number 27 in the list. Someone here must be able to beat that.
We use it (along with several other machines) to do modelling of the physical and electronic properties of atomic-scale defects in semiconductor materials, using a density-functional theory (DFT)-based code.
Now, please let me be the first pedant to point out that for them to have actually seen the beam inside the cockpit, then it must have been helluva dusty or smokey in there. Who were the pilots? Cheech and Chong?
Just use the W3C's link-checker.
At present, for n-type (i.e. electron) diamond, phosphorus is the best dopant. It has an activation energy of 0.6 eV, hence the story is clearly not as good as it is with p-type doping.
However, my work modelling potential defects in diamond has predicted that a substitutional arsenic defect will have an n-type activation energy of around 0.3 eV, meaning that arsenic could be used to create n-type diamond on a par with boron-doped p-type material.