Scientists Turn Tequila Into Diamonds 249
MaxwellEdison writes "Researchers, oddly enough from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, have found a way to make diamond films using tequila. They were originally testing methods of creating the films with organic solutions like acetone when it was noticed the ideal ratios of water and ethanol turned out to be about 80 proof, or 40% alcohol. '"To dissipate any doubts, one morning on the way to the lab I bought a pocket-size bottle of cheap white tequila and we did some tests," Apátiga said. "We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, it turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds."'"
this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
My thoughts? Like a Pawn Shop in reverse-gear.
Now, where's my candy colored clown?
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Fuck'em.
When they invent a way of turning diamonds into tequila, wake me up.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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You drink tequila by the pint? That's badass.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Which reminds me of this [flickr.com] [NSFW]
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
it's a spoof of old DeBeers commercials. They showed shadows of the people, with a real non-shadow diamond ring. The man gave the woman a diamond, and she was all happy and kissed him. And there was much rejoicing.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Funny)
In Thailand you can get more for less.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with JJNess... awesome!
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
*And* tequila works just fine by itself when there aren't any girls around. What the hell are diamonds good for ?
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
To buy more tequila.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
What the hell are diamonds good for?
Enslaving people over a rock as common as the pebbles in your front yard.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Many people don't know this, but one of the *common* methods of diamond collection is to place a bucket around one's indentured slave and force them to crawl on their hands and knees in a line, placing the extremely common diamond into the bucket around their neck. It is said the noise is like that of a machine gun from the diamonds hitting the bottom of the buckets.
Diamonds are so common, it is death to pick up a diamond outside purview of your employer. Otherwise, the market would be at risk of saturation
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)
What the hell are diamonds good for ?
dude, durable non-stick cook wear, greases and oils stick to diamonds like nobody's business, that's how they separate the diamonds from gravel commercially, the diamonds stick to the greased slush box and the gravel washes out. With diamond coated cook-wear just a teaspoon (5ml) of oil sticks to the diamond coating and your eggs don't and it's tough enough to actually survive everyday use. Diamond coating would blow teflon and silverstone out of the water!
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Diamonds make girls easier to sleep with; tequila makes girls easier to sleep with. We really should have seen this earlier.
I can't decide whether it's funny or sad that this was modded informative.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, me neither...that post is goddamn insightful!
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
Informative posts get karma, funny ones do not.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
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Quit rambling about your unfounded theories here....we all know damn well that no amount of tequila or diamonds could cause any girl to sleep with a Slashdot reader.
Duh, why do you think noone ever reads TFA?
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
Which is why God invented roofies.
I'm going to hell, aren't I?
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
...the very special level of hell.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Funny)
reserved for child molesters and people who speak in the theater?
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
There is no cow level
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Good news!
Those girls will be in Hell as well. Along with some of the best Rock bands.
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Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer chloroform. It even comes with a sure-fire pick up line: "hey, smell this rag..."
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
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I wouldn't say "no amount of tequila"...
As they say, one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.
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..we all know damn well that no amount of tequila or diamonds could cause any girl to sleep with a Slashdot reader.
I disagree... Look at what diamonds got for Gates...
Re:this just makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
Results 1 - 10 of about 265,000 for slashdot orgy. (0.40 seconds)
Hmm...
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That is correlation, not causation.
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Yeah but what girl would want a diamond with a worm in it?
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Except there is none. [wikipedia.org]
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Wow, I could swear my dad had a bottle of tequila with a worm in it when I was a kid, but then again maybe his friends were just messing with him.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
Tequila is a form of Mezcal, so you were probably just confused.
Re:this just makes sense (Score:4, Funny)
Now, are they sure about this? (Score:5, Funny)
sounds like... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Actually that is what my research organization does, it researches the yeast that make starches & carbohydrates into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
However the amount of real alcohol we make is small since we are really looking at the yeast in tiny volumes so in month we get about an shot glass.
It is interesting that they found a way to get all of those disparate molecules and separate them and get and carbon coating in a diamond arrangement. Most of the time you get a black graphite layer or some buckyball
Re: (Score:2)
so in month we get about an shot glass
Why don't you up the volumes? What a great side benefit to your job. Add some hops, bottle, next month, you got a brew.
good news (Score:5, Funny)
This is good news. Shortly, you'll be able to use the same substance that got you into this mess, for the ring.
But now we'll have to protect these scientists, as well as tequila factories, lest DeBeers have them assassinated.
Re:good news (Score:5, Funny)
This is good news. Shortly, you'll be able to use the same substance that got you into this mess, for the ring.
Hey, some of us can make that mistake perfectly sober, thank you very much.
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cost of being an alcoholic has gone up (Score:3, Funny)
Re:cost of being an alcoholic has gone up (Score:5, Funny)
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I'd hate to pass that kind of stone. I bet Shatner could sell his at Christie's, though.
Yikes (Score:4, Funny)
As much tequila as I've put away in the past, I'm thinking I should have examined more closely the output from a recent bout with kidney stones...
Re:Yikes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yikes (Score:5, Funny)
I'm almost certain there's a 'your mother' joke in there somewhere.
Re:Yikes (Score:4, Funny)
I was gonna call for a rimshot...but that would just be tasteless
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diamond and pearl necklace
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Why not? Whether they dream of it or not, their fingers will eventually be wrapped around our balls anyway.
Re:Yikes (Score:4, Funny)
Why not? Whether they dream of it or not, their fingers will eventually be wrapped around our balls anyway.
Ah yes, they do teach the "twist and pull" in women's self-defence classes.
Shit... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Shit... (Score:4, Funny)
There goes my liver...
Think of the possibilities:
1. buy some cheap tequila
2. turn it into diamonds to buy more tequila
3. dare I say it?...Profit! And liver damage.
Backwards... (Score:4, Funny)
I've been doing the reverse for years. I'm not even a scientist.
Tequila - Diamond (Score:3, Funny)
Worms are a girls best friend... (Score:3, Funny)
No, it's an Anejo, you insensitive clod!
They probably... (Score:5, Funny)
Just got caught with the tequila at work, and had to come up with an excuse quickly.
Umm... we're... um... um... trying to make diamond nanospheres with it! Yeah, diamond nanospheres! That's the ticket.
Re:They probably... (Score:5, Funny)
Just got caught with the tequila at work, and had to come up with an excuse quickly.
Umm... we're... um... um... trying to make diamond nanospheres with it! Yeah, diamond nanospheres! That's the ticket.
I just say my code is compiling.
Re:They probably... (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't the first time something like this has been done. Northern Blots involve the detection of RNA bound to a membrane by hybridizing it with a complementary radioactive RNA probe. Two things, to prevent non-specific binding of the probe to the membrane you need to block it with some inert protein. Powdered milk is a cheap convenient source of protein. In order to do they hybridization at a lower temperature, a little alcohol is used.
Anyway, some genius figured that since Bailey's Irish cream contains milk and alcohol, you could use it in your hybridization buffer. Apparently it worked, it's even been used for published [cshlp.org] results. Generally formamide is used instead of ethanol these days, and the dry milk works just fine. Still, it's a clever way to get your liquor funded by your grant. ;)
Specific reference... (Score:3, Informative)
You have to scroll down pretty far to find it, so...
This isn't a big deal (Score:5, Funny)
I have personally turned tequila into many things. Including vomit and diarrhea.
Oh that's just great (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh that's just great (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean "200 containers of refined 40% alcohol-based development solution" placed on order from its Mexican manufacturing plant :P
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Homebrew Applications (Score:2)
Those temperatures and pressures seem relatively low. I wonder if this stuff could be achieved using something like a pressure cooker hooked up to a clay kiln. The idea of a DIY stainless steel diamond coating process is quite pleasing to me.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Can't you club the rubber seals? ;)
Ahh tequila (Score:4, Funny)
is there nothing you can't do? From creating diamonds to making me forget my freshman (and most of my sophomore)year at college.
Good Times,good times...
Re: (Score:2)
How do you know they were good times if you can't remember?
What a Waste (Score:4, Funny)
Why would anyone waste good tequila on rocks? Call me back when someone can turn cheap beer into tequila.
Tequila (Score:2)
Tequila - Not just for breakfast anymore!
Only in Mexico (Score:3, Funny)
Applications? (Score:3, Interesting)
What are the applications?
I know a metallurgist who has developed a cheap method of growing diamond onto ferrous surfaces. Is this a possible method for growing diamond on non-ferrous surfaces?
I know there are a lot of jokes floating around here, but could the applications be useful? Can we grow diamond ball-bearings or something? Ideas?
Come on, this is Slashdot. We joke around, but SOMEBODY must know some uses for this idea.
Re:god and diamonds (Score:5, Funny)
"Tequila is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy and rich" -- Jose Cuervo Sauza-Patron
Re:god and diamonds (Score:4, Funny)
"vodka is proof god hates us and wants us to die."
--american dude morning after drinking with russians
Re:It's inevitable (Score:4, Interesting)
Uh, I'm not sure I follow your logic there, even though I agree with the end result. TFA points out they had discovered this by using ethanol and water mixed. They made mixes from pure alchohol and water, it was only after they found the ideal ratio that someone realized it was the same as tequilla. Had prohibition been going on, they would have discovered the real money making part: the ratio of water to alchohol needed to make diamonds.
Interestingly, most labs that use ethanol for things like sterilization get most of it not in the form of pure ethanol but 70% ethanol. There seem to be two causes for that in the US, one is of course that higher-purity ethanol is harder to make, I'm not sure what goes into getting 100% ethanol, but I've heard you can't distill it that pure. The other is that the 70% stock is usually denatured, it often has methanol added. The addition of methanol makes it undrinkable (er, well you could drink it, but you'd go blind and die if you drank enough of it) and also makes it taxed less.
I wonder if these guys weren't trying to cut down on laboratory costs, maybe methanol reduces the efficiency (ruling out the denatured alchohol), but the non-methanol contaminants in tequilla don't. Maybe tequilla is a lot cheaper than even denatured alchohol in Mexico.
Re:It's inevitable (Score:5, Informative)
It's hard to get 100% pure ethanol because ethanol is hygroscopic. This is part of the problem with using pure ethanol in vehicles (water ends up in your fuel without proper precautions), and why butanol may be a better choice for fuel.
Also, I'm not sure why nobody's mentioned it, but vodka is about the closest you can get to a 60%-40% water/ethanol mixture. Very few if any extra chemicals. Why use tequila instead of vodka?
Re:It's inevitable (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You will never find a bottle of Tequila with a worm in it
I beg to differ. I put a worm in a bottle of Tequila then put it in my fridge. My parents promptly found it.
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Why use tequila instead of vodka?
Duh, you can't make a good margarita out of vodka.
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Professor: "Your supposed to be working on bourbon in the nano-rocks not bourbon on the rocks!"
GA: "We had to adjust the alcohol to water ratio, so we are slowly melting ice into the bourbon with frequent ratio checks."
Professor: "OK, carry on. Oh, and give me one for sampling purposes."
Re:It's inevitable (Score:5, Informative)
In simple distillation it is impossible to get 100% ethanol. The highest purity you can get is 95.6% ethanol and 4.4% water because ethanol/water is an azeotrope [wikipedia.org]. There are several ways to get pure ethanol [wikipedia.org], one of which is to add compounds like benzene which makes it unsuitable for human consumption.
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Why not use filtration and/or sieving? Ethanol molecules should be much larger than water molecules.... I know we're talking about creating nanomaterials here, but surely somebody has tried it.... :-)
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That's an interesting idea and would be really cool, but if anyone has done it, I'd imagine it would be outrageously expensive compared to standard methods. For many applications, as the misnamed unknowingfool alluded to, benzene is a pretty cheap way. For human consumption purposes, 95% ethanol is not noticeably different from 100%. But there will definitely be a big market for nanofilters that could separate ethanol from water as soon as it's working and cheap.
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The reason 70% is used is because purer alcohols dehydrates the bacteria and causes them to go into a sporuative phase and more difficult to kill. Ethanol, EtOH is sometimes denatured with methanol and sometime with other alkanes like heptane. EtOH typically comes out of the still at 190 proof or 95%, if memory serves me correctly you can get it up to 98% with additional treatment but it's expensive.
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I think this is simply the first step in a much more important project, which is of course to turn diamonds into tequila.
This wasn't very good tequila (Score:3, Informative)
That's kind of like skydivers' responses to the "why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" jokes - "have you seen the airplanes we're jumping out of?".
A few years back I was in Mazatlan with friends, and checked out tequilas in the local liquor store. The range of selections explained why one of the local restaurants was pouring the stuff like water - the cheap stuff was about $5/gallon. If you wanted Cazadores or drinks at a fancy bar, you still had to pay real money, but if you wanted ethanol that ha
Re:This wasn't very good tequila (Score:5, Informative)
By law, something called "tequila" has to be 51% blue agave. The remainder can be made up of cheap reducing sugar, with the practical result of producing hangovers.
The good stuff is the 100% blue agave tequila. Unfortunately, since there's been an agave shortage in Mexico, prices have gone up in recent years. You have to pay $20 and up for (750mL) 100% blue agave these days.
out of mod points (Score:4, Insightful)
but this is the first informative I read in this thread.