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Diamonds Are For Quite A Long Time

Cosmic Variance
By cjohnson
May 7, 2006 1:37 AMNov 5, 2019 8:04 AM

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While washing the floors just now (Saturday home chores), and turning over in my head all the gardening ideas I want to choose among for various projects outside, I heard a clip on the radio that made me stop in my tracks. This might be old news to some, but did you know that you can get the remains of your loved ones turned into a diamond?! The point is a matter of simple physics. After cremation, you have a decent amount of ash left over, which is carbon-rich. All you need is to extract that carbon, and turn it into diamond... a matter of changing the crystal structure from one form into another under high temperature and pressure. There is a company (or companies, e.g Life Gem) that does this for you, and sends you a nice piece of jewelry made out of your dearly departed. There are slight variations in colour of the finished product.... depending upon the non-carbon "impurities" (if you pardon the term) associated with the source material. So it is very personalised indeed. -cvj

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