It has been hacked out of the earth, cut, polished and bought and sold along the way — to finally be shown in all its glory. These bits of mineral formation from the mines of South Africa, Burma, Brazil, Colombia, Russia or Canada have now arrived — on the red carpet, at gem exhibits and at the premier shops around the world. They are admired, and ultimately bought and shown off, although the mammoth diamond mining concern DeBeers says the current diamond market will depend on the U.S. economy — now struggling. The U.S. is the largest diamond jewelry market in the world. Nevertheless, throughout history precious stones have meant something and still do. VOA's Sonja Pace has this final segment of our series.
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Diamond is the hardest substance found on planet earth and for many centuries it has been one of the most revered and sought after materials by humankind. For years these precious gems have been admired as a thing of ultimate beauty and a sign of supreme wealth, steeped in mythology and deeply rooted in ancient legends, but today in the hands of modern day alchemists these precious stones are taking on a whole new value. In this program Naked Science examines the history of diamonds, and sheds light on how they may change the future. We meet scientists across three continents who are currently unlocking the secrets of diamonds and we find that what they are discovering may have the potential to revolutionize technology. As a gemstone we know that diamonds are costly, but as a raw material technologically advanced super diamonds are priceless.
For Bookings: http://www.asiatravel.com/For More Video: http://book.asiatravel.com/video-travel_destinations.aspxA gemstone or gem (also called a precious or semi-precious stone) is a piece of attractive mineral, which—when cut and polished—is used to make jewelry or other adornments.[1] However certain rocks, (such as lapis-lazuli) and organic materials (such as amber or jet) are not minerals, but are still used for jewelry, and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their lustre or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone. Apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity until the 19th century engraved gems and hardstone carvings such as cups were major luxury art forms; the carvings of Carl Fabergé were the last significant works in this traditionThe traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the Ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious stones; similar distinctions are made in other cultures. The precious stones are diamond, ruby, emerald and sapphire, with all other gemstones being semi-precious.[2] This distinction is unscientific and reflects the rarity of the respective stones in ancient times, as well as their quality – all are translucent with fine color in their purest forms, except for the colorless diamond, and very hard,[3] with hardnesses of 8-10 on the Mohs scale. Other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. The traditional distinction does not necessarily reflect modern values, for example, while garnets are relatively inexpensive, a green garnet called Tsavorite, can be far more valuable than an mid-quality emerald.[4] Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone.In modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition. For example, diamonds are made of carbon (C) and rubies of aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic. Another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example diamonds, which have a cubic crystal system, are often found as octahedrons.Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties. For example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Emerald (green), aquamarine (blue), bixbite (red), goshenite (colorless), heliodor (yellow), and morganite (pink) are all varieties of the mineral species beryl.Gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction. They may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum.Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions.Color is the most obvious and attractive feature of gemstones. The color of any material is due to the nature of light itself. Daylight, often called white light, is actually a mixture of different colors of light. When light passes through a material, some of the light may be absorbed, while the rest passes through. The part that is not absorbed reaches the eye as white light minus the absorbed colors. A ruby appears red because it absorbs all the other colors of white light – blue, yellow, green, etc. – except red.The same material can exhibit different colors. For example ruby and sapphire have the same chemical composition (both are corundum) but exhibit different colors. Even the same gemstone can occur in many different colors: sapphires show different shades of blue and pink and "fancy sapphires" exhibit a whole range of other colors from yellow to orange-pink, the latter called "Padparadscha sapphire".This difference in color is based on the atomic structure of the stone. Although the different stones formally have the same chemical composition, they are not exactly the same. Every now and then an atom is replaced by a completely different atom (and this could be as few as one in a million atoms). These so called impurities are sufficient to absorb certain colors and leave the other colors unaffected.As an example: beryl, which is colorless in its pure mineral form, becomes emerald with chromium impurities. If you add manganese instead of chromium, beryl becomes pink morganite. With iron, it becomes aquamarine.Some gemstone treatments make use of the fact that these impurities can be "manipulated", thus changing the color of the gem.Info Taken from Wikipedia.comCredits to wikipedia.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gem_stone
