
‘Matryoshka’ diamonds unearthed in Siberia (2019) - bryanrasmussen
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/the-worlds-only-matryoshka-diamonds-unearthed-in-siberia/
======
joering2
I think link to this story I posted 2.5 month ago goes into more details:

[https://newatlas.com/materials/matroyoshka-diamond-inside-
di...](https://newatlas.com/materials/matroyoshka-diamond-inside-diamond-
discovered-russia/)

~~~
jfengel
Including a video, which makes it clear that the inside diamond really is
disconnected.

~~~
serf
>The inner diamond moves freely within the transparent outer one.

the second line of the linked article.

but the video is more interesting.

------
KuiN
This was mined not far (at least by Siberian standards) from the Mir mine that
hit the front-page [0] a couple weeks back. I started looking for anything
mine-looking near Nyurba but couldn't find any likely candidates, I guess it's
totally underground rather than strip-mined like Mir?

Also can't comment on a Russian diamond without bringing up the most oddly-
named diamond I've ever found, the "26th Congress of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union"[1].

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22034055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22034055)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_Congress_of_the_Communist...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union_\(diamond\))

Edit: I believe I found the mine, 65°01'11.2"N 117°05'15.7"E

~~~
bluedevil2k
Diamond mines are pit mines simply because of how they’re created and pushed
to the earths surface. Think of it as an underground explosion resulting in a
cone shape with the flat part on the earths surface and the point somewhere
underground.

------
contingencies
Absolutely love the revolving quotes in the header. Regional news with real
class and style!

~~~
lostlogin
A huge portion of that site’s stories seem to be about animals, and dogs (or
dog like things) specifically.

------
lightedman
I collect stones, rumor in certain circles has been circulating for a while
that if it were to hit auction, it would easily command $75M. That would make
it the most valuable gemstone per carat ever.

------
jxramos
> ‘Due to the presence of the dissolved zone, one diamond began to move freely
> inside another on the principle of nesting dolls.’ Bravo, only in Russia!

------
ct0
A diamond that is actually rare and worth something? Say it ain't so.

~~~
bluedevil2k
A diamond is worth what people are willing to pay for it. Just cause you don’t
think they should be expensive doesn’t mean other people agree with you.

~~~
Retric
A diamond is worth what someone is willing to pay minus the cost of selling it
to them. That’s why used Diamonds have such a dramatic loss in value.

~~~
bluedevil2k
This is not true at all. The value of a new diamond is marketing. No one’s
advertising for used diamonds. It’s not exclusive to the diamond industry
either - the reason Coke is more expensive than generic is because of
marketing.

~~~
lostlogin
But used coke is also worthless.

~~~
pacaro
It might not be worth the effort but...

[https://sciencing.com/make-
phosphorus-4524329.html](https://sciencing.com/make-phosphorus-4524329.html)

~~~
lostlogin
This is excellent, thanks.

------
akuji1993
It's going to be interesting if and how you can put a price tag on this. It
being the only case of this ever happening in nature, it could have an insane
value for the right collector while being worthless to 99% of the world.

~~~
angrygoat
In the case of something so unique, there's a strong argument for it being
acquired by a museum so it can be enjoyed widely, and studied by geologists.

~~~
stopads
It's just a diamond, they are not very interesting unless you believe the TV
commercials that tell you they are super important and special. Carbon is
carbon.

I'm just laughing at 800 MILLION YEAR OLD ROCK. Like you know how old all the
rocks are right?

~~~
bluedevil2k
Umm, yes, they do. They know what layer of rock it was found in and can
uranium date the surrounding rocks.

~~~
strbean
I took it as "really, a rock that is old?!" rather than "they can't know
that". But I might have misunderstood.

------
tbabb
I am very curious about the composition of the air inside, and what it could
tell us to have such a perfectly isolated sample that is nearly a billion
years old.

~~~
jolmg
From the first picture, it seems to have holes, so the air should be the same
as the outside. The text also talks about how whatever was filling that space
probably got dissolved. For that to happen, it would need a way to escape the
enclosure.

------
blackrock
Warning: Blue sky thinking ahead..

I always wondered if a huge quantity of diamonds, arranged in a specific
pattern, could be used to build a passive laser.

The energy input would come in from the sun, and it would refract the light to
a second layer of diamonds. That second layer would accumulate enough luminous
energy, before it discharges as a laser. Since a laser diode needs to reach a
certain level of optical amplification before it discharges its beam.

So that makes one operational unit. And you have to assemble a bunch of them
together, to fire off to a third layer, that has a bigger diamond, which
requires a larger energy threshold before it fires off.

And you keep repeating that until you get enough energy to do useful work.

So the whole thing ends up looking like a giant inverted pyramid, of a Rube
Goldberg machine.

The final result, is that the laser is used to do useful mechanical work, like
boiling water to create steam, to move a generator, to create electricity. It
can also be used as a giant death ray, but that’s not very useful, except for
the emperor that wants to hold a planet hostage.

Why this setup? To build something solid state, and somewhat passive, that can
be used to reliably generate electricity for thousands of years. And it’s not
a radioactive nuclear reactor that will create deadly waste that lasts
thousands of years.

And it can also be orbited in space to beam the laser down to earth. It should
last longer than solar panels, which doesn’t seem to last very long.

And now that we can manufacture industrial diamonds that are more pure than a
natural diamond (just add heat, energy, and pressure), that I wonder when we
can make this cheaply enough.

The next trick would be to find that optimal arrangement of diamonds and
design to make such a thing feasible.

~~~
dmurray
They do this already but they use mirrors. Mirrors are cheaper to produce,
easier to shape and probably more effective than diamonds for this
application.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power)

~~~
blackrock
CSP doesn’t work at night. I don’t think it really works in space. It’s not
solid state.

~~~
whatshisface
Mirrors are passive and solid state, except for spinning mercury mirrors which
are spinning and in the liquid state.

~~~
blackrock
A mirror reflects light. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of
reflection.

I’m interested in a device that refracts light, in order to bend it in
arbitrary ways.

~~~
dmurray
Well, then you're on the right track. A diamond can refract light anywhere
between 0 and 24 degrees, and an array of diamonds can bend light anywhere
between 0 and 180 degrees with (I think) less than 20% intensity loss.

You'll make a wonderful Bond villain.

