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Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:00 AM

Cold as ice

A broken engagement -- and a broken heart -- sent Tom Zoellner on a wild journey to understand the endless allure of the diamond.
By Ben Cosgrove

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  • Wednesday, July 19, 2006 04:41 AM

    diamond stability

    If you actually look at the phase diagram for carbon, you will see that its diamond allotrope (allotrope just means different atomic packing in the crystal) is stable only at very high pressure and temperature, which are the conditions under which they form.

    At atmospheric pressure, diamonds are slowly converting back to graphite. So in "forever" your diamond ring will consist of graphite mounted in gold/silver/platinum.

    —yalej Read yalej's other letters

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