Comments on: Russia reveals large deposit of "extra-hard" diamonds in asteroid crater

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:56:00 +0000

Their are also cooties growing in the aerator unless you wash it out constantly.

By: Spam

Spam — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:30:00 +0000

Letting the water run clears out minerals that have precipitated while the water has been still. Also, the chlorine builds up for some reason. Our water comes from a well and tower 1/4 mile away. By the time it travels through concrete mains, up through the plastic pipes in the building, it picks up chemicals. When I first turn on the tap in the morning for coffee, the water smells like a swimming pool, and if a glassful is taken before the water is run, small bits of ancient coral reef that have dissolved and precipitated can be seen. We enjoy award winning water from our well in the Florida aquifer, but by the time it traverses its short distance to my kitchen, it has lots of additives that change the taste of coffee or tea.

By: Spam

Spam — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Not a Brit not a scientist, but the extra oxygen is evaporated when the water comes to a boil. In Japanese tea ceremonies, a scoopful of fresh water from the well is added to the boiling water right before the tea is put in, to ‘refresh’ the water. The problem I find with already hot water is in the source. If it is a potable hot water heater, then all is fine and the chlorine and fluorine, etc., etc., etc., have had a little extra time to evaporate.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:19:00 +0000

I don’t think it necessarily contains different concentrations of anything you could detect with your sense of taste.

Maybe you just have better plumbing. There’s a definite end-of-the-plumbing-line taste in mine.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:32:00 +0000

I believe this is a conservative estimate.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:29:00 +0000

BECAUSE these go to eleven.

By: scav

scav — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:50:00 +0000

I am sceptical of this too. Without information about which metal ions, what state they are oxidised to, and the concentrations thereof, it isn’t really an explanation.

Also, wouldn’t oxidation take place faster in warm water than cold water? And wouldn’t oxidation due to oxygen dissolved in the water have taken place long before the water comes out the tap?

Probably letting the tap run for a touch runs away some of the warmer water in the above-ground pipes so you get a colder glass of water – which may be more pleasant, but I don’t think it necessarily contains different concentrations of anything you could detect with your sense of taste.

By: Jesse Rooney

Jesse Rooney — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:29:00 +0000

Comments about the oxygen in tea water likely have more to do with the oxidation of metals in solution than any actual flavor of the oxygen remaining in the water after boiling. All that oxidation occurs before the oxygen leaves the water during a boil. Oxidation is why water tastes better after you’ve let the tap run for a touch.

By: Frank Diekman

Frank Diekman — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Sounds like a plot point from a Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie.

By: adam smith

adam smith — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 03:14:00 +0000

Full-on Soviet era propaganda is BACK!

By: entheo

entheo — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:26:00 +0000

Actually these aren’t extraterrestrial diamond, but impact diamonds, the original article
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0917/Russia-reveals-shiny-state-secret-It-s-awash-in-diamonds put in a correction
“Editor’s note: The original version misstated the type of deposit needed to create impact diamonds.]”
to this
“The type of stones at Popigai are known as “impact diamonds,” which theoretically result when something like a meteor plows into a graphite deposit at high velocity.”

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:48:00 +0000

I don’t think they’re planning on using these for All applications, only some.

By: ocker3

ocker3 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Of course they’ll taste different, when you boiled one sample you released any number of trace elements into the air, plus probably picked up a few from the equipment used to boil it, even if you used a paper cup in a microwave!

By: invictus

invictus — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:23:00 +0000

~~How convenient then that these diamonds aren’t of extraterrestrial origin.~~
Ah, I see where you’re getting that. Isn’t it cute how ITAR-TASS thinks that its reporters and web editors know English?

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:20:00 +0000

Anybody caught in possession of extra-hard diamonds should be put on double-secret probation.

By: scav

scav — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:03:00 +0000

Well…

By the time the water reaches a rolling boil I think most of the dissolved gases have come out, and also I am unconvinced that the presence or absence of 1mg of dissolved oxygen in your mug of tea (difference between about 10mg/l at 15 °C and about 6 at 50 °C) would be discernible. So yeah, your pedantic tea-water-temperature nazi is indeed full of it. Or at least, his reason for using cold water is bullshit.

By: Marko Raos

Marko Raos — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:34:00 +0000

but these go to eleven

By: mbourgon

mbourgon — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:26:00 +0000

Coincidentally, I was recently reading about how the Russians have had DeBeers over a barrel for decades due to their manufactured diamonds that they were claiming were real (“Silver Bears”).
http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap17_print.htm
Great quote at the end:
“If Russia continues to expand its own production of both uncut diamonds and silver bears, De Beers will be unable to stockpile or sell the increment– or maintain the diamond invention.”

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:18:00 +0000

This is the kind of question New Scientist has its back page devoted to. Ask ‘em, you’ll produce a very academic flame war.

By: Marko Raos

Marko Raos — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0000

actually, cold water “tends” to be more oxygenated…
heating removes free oxygen from the water while cooling that same water doesn’t necessarily reoxygenate it. you have to do it physically by actually making bubbles.
an experiment – fill two glasses of water from the tap (nice and bubbly). put one in the fridge right away and heat the other one almost to the boiling point. let it cool a bit and place it in the fridge with the first one. once they’re at the same temperature, taste them. you WILL feel the difference.

as for the diamonds.. i don’t know whether this news is bs or not, but i suppose that not all crystalline structures are the same at molecular level and that the conditions under which they formed do have an influence on their “purity” (how close they conform to the ideal mathematical model of the structure) who knows?

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:45:00 +0000

Harder than type IIa diamonds? Harder than Lonsdaleite? That’s pretty hard (to believe)!

By: gadgetphile

gadgetphile — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:29:00 +0000

And it’s an unlimited supply!

Must’ve been a darn big meteor. I wonder how big the impact crater is.

Edit:
Wikipedia states 27,000kg of diamonds are used in industry annually. Not that these new and improved diamonds would completely take over that market, but even at 1%, for 3000 years, that would be 800,000 kg of diamonds or 200 cubic meters.

By: Taylor Jessen

Taylor Jessen — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Now would be a good time for everyone to review the classic article “Have You Ever Tried To Sell a Diamond?” from Atlantic, February 1982. The DeBeers diamond monopoly being under threat from Russian diamonds may be old news, but this new revelation sure informs it in a surprising way.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/

By: timquinn

timquinn — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:09:00 +0000

HoHo, something I have never heard of, must be stupid others, I will mock them.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:08:00 +0000

third paragraph of link, about 150 words in, it is all explained. They had other diamond mines they were doing well from and did not want to destroy the tightly controlled pricing with over-supply. Those crafty communists!

By: Mike Richards

Mike Richards — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:33:00 +0000

Diamonds are of variable hardness. Generally the octahedral faces of diamond crystals are harder than the cubic faces, but also hardness is also affected the physical structure of the crystal. Smaller crystals are generally harder than large ones because small crystals are less likely to contain flaws. The hardest of all are those where the crystal faces are precisely aligned with the atomic lattice.

Some gem fields produce consistently hard diamonds. The South Australian fields supply many of the diamonds used to cut and polish other diamonds.

By: gumbowing

gumbowing — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:27:00 +0000

They’re going to call it Putinite!

By: LaylaSV

LaylaSV — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:01:00 +0000

I did not know that. Fuckin’ A. I thought fish died when it was too warm because they got too warm.

Now I am doubting something I always just assumed to be true; that two batches of boiling water are the same, regardless of whether one started out warm and the other started out cold.

By: Max Allan

Max Allan — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:01:00 +0000

If the price comes down because they have so many, then applications will increase and the projected life span will decrease. I look forward to being able to cut homes into sheer rock faces for sensible money.

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:57:00 +0000

psh, speak for yourself! I can’t imagine a more perfect gem for my death metal bride. And as a bonus, it’s maybe from space!