Why Can Beethoven's Hair Be Turned into a Beautiful Blue Diamond?
The German composer Beethoven left countless precious musical legacies during his lifetime. Three diamonds made from his hair have shone brightly again 180 years after his death. In 2007, the University of Connecticut Archives donated a lock of Beethoven's hair that had been stored for many years to the "Life Treasures" company for a charity auction. The company then transformed it into three stunning blue diamonds. One was displayed, one was returned to the archives, and one was put up for auction online, with the proceeds donated to a charity organization that fulfills the wishes of children with serious or terminal illnesses.
Why can Beethoven's hair be turned into beautiful diamonds?
It turns out that diamonds, which symbolize permanence and prestige, are almost entirely composed of carbon. Human hair also contains carbon. Experts from the "Life Treasures" company heated Beethoven's hair under oxygen-free conditions at high temperatures to extract pure carbon. They then divided it into three parts, allowing each pure carbon to be placed in an environment of about 3000℃ and 7.07×10^5 Pa for two weeks. In this way, the hair of the "Immortal Beethoven" was transformed into three diamonds weighing a total of 112 milligrams (0.56 carats).
In addition to hair, carbon from human ashes can also be used to make diamonds. In 2007, a Swiss company launched a service to turn human ashes into diamonds. The weight of cremated human ashes is generally 2500–3000 grams, and about 500 grams of ashes can be used to make a diamond. These artificial diamonds vary in price depending on their size and cutting process. Some families hope to turn the ashes of their deceased fathers, mothers, or spouses into diamonds and keep them as a mysterious and meaningful eternal memorial.
The artificial diamonds made from hair and ashes and natural diamonds—diamonds—are actually composed of the same element, carbon. The difference is that artificial diamonds first extract the carbon elements from organic matter under high-temperature conditions without oxygen to form pure carbon substances, and then subject them to higher temperatures and pressures to crystallize into diamonds. The entire process takes only 6–8 weeks. However, diamonds are formed from carbon-containing organic matter that has been subjected to long-term thermal compression in the mantle hundreds of kilometers underground, and their formation takes hundreds of millions of years.
Natural diamonds are not only priceless treasures, but also the hardest substance in natural minerals. Although the value of artificial diamonds is far less than that of natural diamonds, their properties are almost exactly the same, so they are widely used in industries such as machinery, geology, and oil drilling as various cutting tools, drill bits, and abrasives.