For most of human history, diamonds have been the ultimate luxury item. Useful, beautiful, hard to come by, and impossible to recreate. Most of them formed a billion or more years ago, deep in the Earth's mantle. Way down there, the pressure and heat are just right to crystallize carbon into diamond instead of graphite. It's that crystalline structure that gives diamonds their unique durability. They shot to the surface long ago by volcanic eruptions, and the abrupt drop in temperature locked all those bonds into place forever.
Diamonds are dramatic and improbable, so they're immensely valuable. Except, that part about being impossible to recreate, it's not true anymore. Historically, the diamond industry has a lot to answer for. It operated like a large, price-fixing cartel for most of the 20th century. It's implicated in horrifying conflicts in Africa, and elsewhere. And it's done significant environmental damage. This we know. But these days, this industry is grappling with a whole other curveball.
Man-made diamonds are on the rise and fast. They're cheaper than natural diamonds, and they're not knockoffs. Both natural diamond and a synthetic diamond are diamonds. They are composed of a carbon in a cubic structure. It's kind of extremely difficult right now, to separate them up visually.
The first method that worked, high-pressure high temperature, or HPHT, relies on a reaction chamber heated up to 1600 degrees Celsius and as much pressure as you would feel on your fingertip if you balanced a commercial airliner on it. HPHT technology basically is mimicking the natural process, how the diamonds formin the Earth's mantle.
A more recent technique called chemical vapor deposition accomplishes the same task, and at much lower pressure and temperature. The process involves methane gas and microwaves. And honestly, it's beyond confusing. The Gemological Institute of America likes to describe it as carbon atoms floating down like snow and accumulating or depositing on a tiny diamond seed.
Since the 1950s, most lab-grown diamonds have been small and dark in color, so they've been used to make things like saw blades and drill bits. In the past six or so years, the technology has improved dramatically, making synthetic diamonds bigger, clearer, more pure and next to impossible to tell apart from natural diamonds. Which is fine for drill bit manufacturers, but it puts the jewelry industry on notice.
Chinese companies, in particular, are poised to flood the market with smaller diamonds. They've historically been focused on industrial uses, but as oil drilling slows down worldwide, they could easily pivot, overwhelming jewelry supply. In one run, they probably can grow 10, 20 carats small mini diamonds, but it takes only a few hours to produce that many amounts of gem quantities, small stones. They can produce a 200,000 carat of diamond-like this in one month.
Some consumers really want something that's natural, that's mined from the Earth, they like the history of diamonds that are created billions of years ago. That has a certain meaning to them. And then other customers are really excited about the environmentally responsible characteristic of lab diamonds, that there's no need for additional mining. That's a big draw.
Comments
I am not sure where diamonds can be used, apart from jewellery and industry equipment like saw blades and drill bits.
To be honest I don’t care about diamonds as a luxury good. Even if i was extremely rich, I wouldn’t buy them.
Do you think that artificial diamonds should count as real diamonds?
Is H2O different from other H20? No, it is not. So the artificial diamonds are diamonds. For me, there is no difference. Maybe because I don't believe in this whole "history of diamonds created so many years ago in deeps of Earth". It is just a piece of coal that many people say should be worth absurdness amount of money. For me, it is not even that pretty.
What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
I have no idea, I am not material engineer. They are kind of sturdy material, but for tips of things. You wouldn't be able to make a bridge with them, would you?
Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
If I had a lot of money, I would by one, toss it into pure, liquid oxygen and see it burn. Just for fun.
But being more serious... They don't appeal to me.
I don't know about all the useful applications of diamonds but I know that they are used in optical components, particularly they serve as a protective coating for infrared optics in harsh environments.
I simply don't care and I don't think of them as a luxury. But it's good to see that technological progress allows us to create diamonds in artificial conditions without the need to harvest them by drilling.
It's some hilarious irony that people are working so hard to defend their selfish and malicious efforts for identical rocks that could've been produced without any bloodshed.
Theres a difference so they can make a premium on the "natural" diamonds so they can make more money, and shitty one here is natural so you have to pay more for this one instead of the flawless one which looks twice as good and half the price.
I don't know what we could do with this accomplishment with science, I dont know where it would be useful.
I think diamnods are luxury that many people can only dream about which is a little bit bad in the world but yes I thik it's a luxury and there is no second thoughts about it.
I dont really think there is anything useful left to do with diamonds as a material they are easy to crush not easy to work on, i dont know man.
- in jewelry
- in the technique of grinding and polishing expensive stones and cutting glass
- in mining as driller bits, drills
I treat them as a luxury. Diamonds are very expensive, but there are still people who buy them. I would call them the good of Veblen. I have read many articles about fraudsters who sell counterfeit diamonds or rob people of money who want to buy them, so be very careful.
In my opinion, synthetic diamonds should be treated in the same way in industrial applications but should be treated differently in jewellery. It’s not only the looks that matter to people, but also the history. If you think about them as pieces of thousands of dinosaurs collapsed into a single small stone, it might change your attitude.
I think I pretty much proved I treat them as the luxury that’s beyond my reach. I’m not a big materialist but I’m not a hypocrite either. I believe asking such a question to people who can’t afford to buy it is pointless because their answers are biased towards that inability. Luxury is not a rational term, it’s driven mostly by social status and personal wealth. Perspective matters.
I think that this accessory can be beautiful but this is didn't mean that there can be reason to pay for it so much when there was alternatives that can be even better and looks better than diamonds.
2. It is possible to make much useful things. But I have no idea on this subject.
3. Actually I am not interested in the matter. On it for me it has no bigger value.
Right now diamonds in jewelry are highly valued. But a funny thing about diamonds is, they are called Veblen goods. If their price was low, demand would sharply drop as well. No one would buy cheap diamonds. They are status goods - if you're rich, you buy diamonds, if you aren't, you don't. It's like a Rolex watch or a Maybach car.
If their price drops, so any middle-class person can buy as many as he wants - not many people would buy them. Because why spend cash on them if you can buy a faster car, or a newer iPhone or a better TV. And if anyone can buy it, you don't do it for status reasons, they wouldn't be valued and demand would drop sharply.
I actually read once: women don't really care about the diamond itself as much as they care about the pain you felt buying it for say 3-4 months salary, their brain doesn't say: "I have a diamond", but "He bought me a diamond".
So if we'll have artificially created diamonds cheaper then real ones, it will probably not change much - either real diamonds will still be considered true diamonds and highly valued or demand for diamonds will drop sharply and we will have some other status jewelry object which is pricey and hard to obtain.
2. I've heard that calibration of many scientific apparatures requires the density of a diamond or the way it refracts light beams, however I doubt I could explain specific use without proper research on the matter.
3. I do find it a luxury, however it does not mean I'd not invest in precious stones. The interesting thing about the diamonds is the hermetic society of the jewellers that trade them, years ago I've found a book explaining the ways of gem traders in details, though I cannot remember the name of either the author or the title.
I’m not sure but i think they are popular in grinding discs. They are harder then almost everything.
Diamonds always were luxurious items. Only the richest people could afford them. Today it’s kind of the same. You don’t need diamond
I believe it has a lot of uses, we can use artificial diamonds wherever we need to cut something or have a very sharp surface.
I do. But I think that once technology of producing synthetic diamonds becomes more and more cheap and synthetic diamonds will become more popular and more affordable it wouldn't be so luxury. Because previously it was treated luxuries mainly due to it hard to find, especially big one.
No, because... they are artificial ! Those original have something special in them , and that's the reason why they are so expensive. For me it would be great to have 2 options - to buy original diamond, which is very expensive, or artificial one, cheaper.
2. What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
Place them in jewelery and make it cheaper !
3. Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
I don't really care - it's hard to me to understand why jewelery is so expensive, and why two identical rings have completely different prices... for me it's just a stone.
I think that diamonds is vastly overrated. And there is no real need for people for using real ones, if they just wanna shiny glossy piece of glass.
What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
I think such durable material can be excellent screen protector.
Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
I don't care. If people tell you that something is expensive that isn't always true, because hype around such kind of materials is nothing else than "everyone loves diamonds, I should have one too".
Diamonds can be use in any laboratory during experiments due to their properties, e.g. we can use them as a very sharp knives.
For sure they are expensive. And like every expensive thing on the world, can be treat like luxury. Personally, I’m thinking about them as a luxury product that are amazing in jewelry.
I think that it should be treated as real diamonds as long as they are pure and perfect as natural ones.
2. What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
hmmm... maybe... using it to produce some tools or something that need to be durable.
3. Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
I treat diamonds as a gemstone. As topaz as sapphire. It need to be expensive, it's beautiful but not my favourite. :) For sure I will buy ring for my gf not with diamond but with emerald :)
I have no idea how we can use diamonds. Jewelery of course, but something else? No idea.
Diamonds are overrated and I don't treat them as luxury.
Yes, why not? I know that diamonds are definition of luxury, but who will tell which one is real, when the difference is that small?
What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
I don't know. At first jewelery comes to my mind, but nothing else.
Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
Personally I don't care about them - but I know that there may be a lot of people, for which diamonds are very important and that's fine. Everyone can have their "passion" :)
Maybe we could use them in drills?
I don't care about it.
Yes. If the difference is unnoticable then they are just the same. We shouldn't specify which are real and which are not because of history, but because of its structure
What another useful thing we can do with them in your opinion?
I think the same things we did before. Maybe as smart watches or mobile phones screens?
Do you treat them as a luxury or you don’t care about it?
Nope. I don't care. But I'm pretty sure that I don't understand jewellery enough
Maybe in the future lab diamonds should entirely replace real diamonds, like faux fur should replace natural fur. We will see.