The World of Jewelry and Gemstones

Excerpt from USAToday: “The whole concept turns the fundamental idea of a diamond on its head. The ability to manufacture diamonds could change business, products and daily life as much as the arrival of the steel age in the 1850s or the invention of the transistor in the 1940s.

In technology, the diamond is a dream material. It can make computers run at speeds that would melt the innards of today’s computers. Manufactured diamonds could help make lasers of extreme power. The material could allow a cellphone to fit into a watch and iPods to store 10,000 movies, not just 10,000 songs. Diamonds could mean frictionless medical replacement joints. Or coatings — perhaps for cars — that never scratch or wear out.

Scientists have known about the possibilities for years. But they’ve been held back because mined diamonds are too expensive and too rare. And they’re hard to form into wafers and shapes that would be most useful in products. Manufacturing changes that. It’s like the difference between having to wait for lightning to start a fire vs. knowing how to start it by hand.

“I’m just so completely awed by this technology,” says Sonia Arrisonof tech analysis group Pacific Research Institute. “Basically, anything that relies on computing power will accelerate.”

Arno Penzias, a venture capitalist and Nobel Prize winner for physics, says, “This diamond-fabrication story marks a high-profile milestone on an amazing scientific journey.”

“We can’t begin to see all the things that can happen because single diamond crystals can be made,” says Apollo co-founder Robert Linares, elegant and slim in a golf shirt, slacks and loafers as he sits at the two plastic folding tables that make up Apollo’s low-budget conference room. “We are only at the beginning.”

Linares has worked on the technology for 15 years, much of that time in his garage. From the start, he did this because of the promise of diamonds in technology. Linares wasn’t trying to make gems. “

In jewelry stores, you may have seen many different varieties of gold including yellow, white, rose (red), and green. These colors do not occur naturally. Pure 24K gold is found naturally in one and only one color – yellow. The color of pure gold cannot be changed. However, most gold used for jewelry is not pure gold, but is alloyed with other metals. The color of the gold jewelry depends on what metals are used in the alloys. The copper in rose gold is what gives the metal its red color. The primary alloy used in white gold is nickel, which gives the gold its white color. However, it is very difficult to achieve a true white color since 14K gold contains 58.5% pure gold. The appearance of the white gold alloy will always be influenced by the yellow color of the pure gold it contains. The result is a color that appears white, but may seem to have a yellow cast when compared to a white metal like platinum or rhodium. How yellow the white gold alloy appears depends on the amount of gold in the alloy. 18K white gold will look more yellow than 14K white gold since the alloy contains more gold. 24K gold cannot appear white since it contains 100% pure gold. The slightly yellowish appearance of white gold was not a major problem in the past since it is only noticeable when compared next to a true white metal like platinum. When platinum became more popular in the 1990s, customers began to notice that their white gold didn’t look as white as platinum. Jewelers began to rhodium plate white gold in order to achieve a white color comparable to platinum. Rhodium plating of white gold jewelry has now become standard. The problem with this practice is that the rhodium plating does not last forever. Customers are often surprised when they notice that the back of their ring looks a little yellowish after wearing it for awhile. This is inevitable with rhodium plated jewelry. The rhodium plating will eventually wear away and will need to be replated by a qualified jeweler. If you want white metal jewelry that doesn’t need to be rhodium plated, you should stick with metals that are naturally white like platinum. Your other option is to have the rhodium completely removed and accept that your white gold jewelry won’t look as white as platinum.