Cremation? Burial? How about Diamonds? 401
travisbecker writes "From Reuters via Yahoo! comes this story. "A Chicago company (Lifegem) says it has developed a process for turning cremated human remains into diamonds that can be worn as jewelry." As for the quality... "If it's done slowly and with a great deal of care, one could have a reasonably high-quality diamond," according to a quote in the story." This should not be confused with our earlier diamond discussion.
thats sick (Score:0, Interesting)
and who's idea was this?
and how did they test it?
ugh.
leave dead people alone, don't wear them.
Nothing beats a Frisbee (Score:1, Interesting)
But the real benefit... (Score:2, Interesting)
...is the fact that in the future they will be able to reconstruct your entire body from the diamond.
Re:The question is ... (Score:1, Interesting)
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Often in the cremated remains of monks who have led extremely pure lives are found sarira of various colors and sizes that look like effulgent pearls.
Chan Master Syu-Yun related this experience he had with a relic of the Buddha at Asoka Monastery:
. . . Everyday when visitors came to have a look at the sarira, I always followed them. The visitors' opinions about the relic varied greatly. I had seen it many times; at first it looked to me as of the size of a green bean and of a dark purple color. In the middle of the tenth month, after I had paid reverence to the Mahayana and Hinayana tripitakas, I went again to look and it was the same size as before but like a brilliant red pearl. As I was impatient to see how it would transform itself, I again prostrated myself and felt pains all over my body; the sarira was bigger than a yellow bean, half yellow and half white.
Most of you are forgetting... (Score:2, Interesting)
This fucken rules. (Score:4, Interesting)
Why did they say that? (Score:2, Interesting)
how? (Score:2, Interesting)
Insurance coverage? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why do I have a euphoric Final Fantasy feeling? (Score:5, Interesting)
This feels like it's straight from a Final Fantasy game. I can be a piece of Materia someday! Now all they need to do is figure out how to summon people back out of the diamonds for a whopping good time.
a very expenisve cubic zirconia! (Score:2, Interesting)
So this is no use to a super villain who wishes to convert a body to diamonds.
A cynical person would say this was just another grab by the death industry to separate grieving family from their money. What is it that this company does for the $4K. A 1/4-caret cubic zirconia can be had for fifty dollars or so. The only thing that Lifegem does is to extract the base carbon from the body remains, apparently using a simple furnace. Assuming that they contract out the actual diamond production, their risk and capital equipment expense should be relatively small. I admit that the purification process is probably innovative, and development costs must be recovered, but a nearly 100 times markup. Ridiculous.
No, diamonds aren't forever (Score:1, Interesting)
Shattered? Even though they are the hardest substance on earth? Yes. There is a difference between strength (maximum stress before breaking) and hardness (amount of deflection for a given stress). Diamonds don't deflect very much, but if you hit them with a hammer, they will shatter as they exceed the maximum stress. This is how gems are cut.
I heard that in far ago India, some city slickers suckered the natives, telling them that a big gem wasn't a diamond. To prove it, they hit it with a hammer and watched it shatter. After the natives gave up in disgust, the city slickers picked up the (still significant shards) and make megabucks.
Fire is a pretty good way to trash diamonds too. Diamonds also are quite attracted to grease, so don't forget to wash that ring before it gets too icky.
Re:The question is ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Where are the BS filters? (Score:2, Interesting)
Diamonds, non-gem grade, can be produced from the vapor phase from several carbon-based molecules. Obviously not suitable for corpse transformation.
Diamonds, of any grade, can be produced from elemental (or, perhaps, from suitably doped) elemental carbon by application of extremely high pressures and temperatures.
There is no extant process for reducing a human body so that only the carbon atoms are left.
Therefore, the very suggestion of converting a human body to diamond seems to be pure bullshit.
Anyone want to invest in the venture?