Chinese scientists have created an artificial “super diamond” much greater in hardness than real ones, an advance that could ...

Where would carbon-based life be without carbon? There are 118 known chemical elements, but carbon is the fourth most ...

Experiments on battery electrodes and fuel cell catalysts while they're being used - operando spectroscopy - can revolutionise our understanding of these crucial materials. Clare Sansom reports ...

For the first time, researchers in China have synthetically produced a nearly pure hexagonal diamond, marking a significant ...

Most natural and synthetic diamonds feature a cubic lattice structure but there are rare exceptions. Lonsdaleite, for example, is a type of diamond that was first ...

Researchers have found that a two-dimensional carbon material is tougher than graphene and resists cracking—even the ...

At its core, the diamond battery thrives on decay — specifically, the decay of the carbon-14 isotope. Carbon-14 is best known ...

The result is a power source with a half-life of 5,700 years, meaning it could potentially last for tens of thousands of years without needing a recharge or replacement. The kicker, though, is that ...

Mr. Cuadros is the author of “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon.” In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, people across the world rush to buy diamond ...