NOVA Online | The Diamond Deception

Welcome to the companion Web site to "The Diamond Deception," originally broadcast on February 1, 2000. The film documents the efforts of researchers around the world to create synthetic diamonds, some of which have become so indistinguishable from natural diamonds as to fool experts. Here's what you'll find online:

The Science Behind the Sparkle
Light normally travels at 186,000 miles per second, but diamond is so dense that it slows light to less than half that speed. It also, of course, refracts light into all the colors of the rainbow. What else does diamond do to light? Find out in this excerpt from Robert Hazen's new book, The Diamond Makers.
Diamonds in the Sky
Glittering stars in the night sky aside, scientists have long known that there are diamonds in the heavens. Meteorites have them, Neptune and Uranus likely have them, and interstellar dust itself may be, well, dusty with them.
A Primer of Gemstones
Unfamiliar with your precious versus semi-precious gems? We'll make your understanding crystal-clear in this illustrated introduction to the world's most coveted rocks.
See Inside a Diamond (Hot Science)
In this interactive feature, try your hand at using quarks and electrons to fashion an atom of carbon—the stuff that diamonds are made of—then have a close look at a diamond crystal. (Requires Shockwave plug-in)

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