The Golconda Blue, once owned by Indian royalty, is set to go under the hammer. What is its historical significance? What is ...

Christie’s is getting ready to present The Golconda Blue, the largest Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond ever to be offered at auction.

It also enables precision ‘doping’ with elements such as boron (in blue diamonds) for electrochemical applications, or nitrogen-vacancy (NV) in pink diamonds for quantum technology.

Most precious stones were synthesized long ago; only the lordly diamond held out. The only synthetic diamonds produced have been microscopic, and there was doubt that they were real diamonds.

In their project, reported in the journal Nature Materials, the group developed a process that involves heating and compressing graphite to create synthetic diamonds. Diamonds are a prized gem the ...

With what it takes to make synthetic diamonds – the crushing pressures ... Where sapphire gets its blue tint mainly from iron, rubies get their pink to blood-red hue from chromium.