Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Star Dragon on February 17, 2004, 06:55:37 pm

Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Star Dragon on February 17, 2004, 06:55:37 pm: So your decendants can mine the sun when it turns into THIS! Th biggest diamond in our corner of the Galaxy!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Carl on February 17, 2004, 06:58:25 pm: pretty useless, though. couldn't put it on a ring or anything.
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Taristin on February 17, 2004, 07:01:56 pm: Could put it on the ultimate ring.

*halo with a diamond*
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: demon442 on February 18, 2004, 10:57:40 pm: Somebody call Kobe Bryant!
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Bobboau on February 18, 2004, 11:20:53 pm: why?
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: CP5670 on February 18, 2004, 11:28:42 pm: uh, there is another thread on this a few down the list. :p
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Setekh on February 18, 2004, 11:30:43 pm: I heard about that. Just plain nuts. Let's send a ship via subspace over there and mine the damn thing. Then diamonds would depreciate like nothing else. Maybe I could actually get those diamonds on the soles of my shoes. ;)
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Liberator on February 18, 2004, 11:58:57 pm: It's amazing the value people ascribe to a complex, highly-organized form of carbon. You realize that we can manufacture diamonds in a lab enviroment and that the DeBeers are stifling general production.
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: karajorma on February 19, 2004, 04:05:33 am: The most annoying thing is that the man made diamonds are actually better than the natural once since they'll fluorese under a UV light.

I personally think that jewels glowing with a pale blue light is actually cooler than the original :D
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: demon442 on February 19, 2004, 06:47:08 am: Quote
Originally posted by Bobboau
why?

When he cheated on his wife and the girl sued for rape, he bought her a massive diamond ring to keep her from leaving him.

I personally feel that making rare metals and gems worth so much is petty and short sighted.
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: diamondgeezer on February 19, 2004, 11:28:27 am: During my geology A-level, my lecturer explained how diamonds get washed out of formatiuons called 'kimberlite pipes' and end up on the beaches of the west coast of Africa. There are entire beaches where the sand is made entirely of diamonds. DeBeers buys them up and concretes them over so the locals won't pinch 'em and reduce their value to pennies
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Zarax on February 19, 2004, 11:42:28 am: Getting nearer, there are theories about Jupiter's core being made of the same material...
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Kazan on February 19, 2004, 11:42:51 am: DeBeers = cartel
DeBeers = going to die, too many of the current generation understand what's going on
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Zarax on February 19, 2004, 11:43:35 am: I agree with Kazan for once...
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: karajorma on February 19, 2004, 11:47:55 am: Quote
Originally posted by Zarax
Getting nearer, there are theories about Jupiter's core being made of the same material...

There are also theories that it's metallic hydrogen, which would be cooler and more useful :D
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Stryke 9 on February 19, 2004, 11:57:44 am: How redundant.

This thread is now about my balls. Discuss.
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Grey Wolf on February 19, 2004, 12:39:35 pm: Mettalic hydrogen is actually incredibly strong. If only we could get it in that form at STP....
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: karajorma on February 19, 2004, 12:52:06 pm: It's incredibly light too. Just going on atomic weight we're talking nearly 30 times lighter than aluminium
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Setekh on February 19, 2004, 11:28:26 pm: Metallic hydrogen? :eek: Someone explain its characteristics to me?
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: karajorma on February 20, 2004, 04:09:57 am: No one is 100% certain cause we've never managed to make it for longer than a few milliseconds but if you look at a periodic table you'll notice that hydrogen sits right at the top of the alkali metals group. That means that theoretically it should share a lot of their properties.

The idea is that if you cool hydrogen enough and subject it to huge pressure it will turn into a metallic form. This form is known to exist on Jupiter and Saturn. What makes it really interesting is that some scientists believe that once made it may remain a metal after the pressure is removed (in the same way that diamond doesn't turn back into graphite the second the pressure is removed).

Metallic hydrogen would be about as strong as aluminium but would weigh 1/3 as much. It would also be useful as a fuel source (simply turning it back into a gas releases energy. Once you have the gas you can burn it) and it may also be useful in fusion applications as one of the main problems with fusion (getting the attoms close together) is already halfway solved.
Best of all some people think it would also be a room temperature superconductor :D
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Johnmike on February 20, 2004, 09:59:04 am: If it's diamond and it was mined, the value of diamonds would go way down. So that pretty much screws that industry over.
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: karajorma on February 20, 2004, 10:06:35 am: As opposed to them screwing us over?
Title: Invest in the SOL system
Post by: Johnmike on February 20, 2004, 10:08:22 am: Indeed.