Strange But True: How To Turn A Human Into A Diamond
Carbon. Its biological importance can't be overstated. The element is essential to life on land, water and everywhere in between. Without it, this spinning rock of ours called Earth would be an empty place. It'd also be a lot less shiny. That's because carbon, which accounts for 18% of the human body, is also what diamonds are made of.
Insert Lonité, a Swiss memorial diamond company that turns human ashes into diamonds. Through a fascinating process that you'll learn more about shortly, they use the carbon inside of us to turn loved ones into diamonds.
Natural diamonds develop deep in the earth through a combination of high pressure and high temperature. Through specialized equipment and technology, Lonité is able to recreate this natural environment, growing human carbon and hair into a genuine diamond.
It all starts with purification. Upon receipt of human ashes, it undergoes an inspection. If the ashes don't contain enough carbon, the company introduces the decedent's human hair into the ashes. Once it's determined that enough carbon exists, they clean the milling equipment used to purify the mixture.
Lonité starts up a water system that purifies water to 18.2 MΩ.cm (1250 times better purity than drinking water). They use this ultra-pure water to clean equipment to avoid introducing external contaminants. The ashes are introduced then introduced into their milling and purification system and cleaned of impurities over the course of 80 hours.
This purified carbon taken from the human ash is then introduced into a milling chamber. According to Lonité, at this point, the carbon is so dense that air atoms, water vapor, and even oxygen are absent from the mixture. From there the diamond grows inside a crystallization chamber for over 30 days.
To replicate the extremely high temperatures deep in the earth, the chamber is set at a consistent temperature somewhere around 4000°F (they won't reveal exactly what degree). At this stage the diamonds are very vulnerable, so the slightest power interruption can distort the stone so the company keeps backup generators on standby, much like a hospital.
After going through the milling it's inserted into a wet chemical environment to remove heavy metals. The carbon is then tested and, if not 99.99% pure, is reintroduced into the purifiers again. Once it passes inspection the mixture is set inside a second crystallization chamber (see diagram above).
Depending upon the requested size of the memorial diamond, this process can take several days to several months as the mixture transforms into a diamond. After the appropriate duration has passed, it's then polished much like a mined diamond you'd buy at a jewelry store. By this point, several weeks to months have likely passed. What's most interesting of all is that every diamond is unique to each person.
Given most loved one's exchange diamonds to symbolize their commitment, this represents an interesting way to memorialize them after passing away. Would you turn your loved one into a diamond? Let me know in the comments below.
