On May 14, 2014, at 11:00 AM, Knapp <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Pressure and heat are not always needed. Perhaps this research could provide a path to let biosystems make diamond.
> http://news.rice.edu/2014/02/03/no-pressure-needed-for-diamond-film/
>

This is about making diamond films, not bulk diamond, and the temperature/pressure is smaller compared to making bulk diamond, but the pressures involved are still in the range of 100-150K psi, and temps in the range of 500-1000K, which is ~225-725C.

Again, a diamond-making critter will be a really good approximation of, say,  a Balrog…<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kBN340vd4>

Also there’s a big caveat in the article:

"Yakobson said the paper doesn’t cover a possible deal-breaker. “The conversion from one phase to another starts from a small seed, a nucleation site, and in this process there’s always what is called a nucleation barrier. We don’t calculate that here.” "

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs