April’s birthstone is the diamond. Diamonds are a wonder of nature. Their cold sparkling fire has held us spell-bound for centuries, inspiring rich passionate myths of romance, intrigue, power, greed, and magic. Ancient Hindus, finding diamonds washed out of the ground after thunderstorms, believed they were created by bolts of lightning. In our place and time, the diamond is a symbol of enduring love, and often grace engagement rings.
There are many kinds of diamonds: transparent, translucent or opaque; ranging from colorless to sooty black, with many colors in between. Mostly transparent diamonds, colorless or tinted, are used as jewelry. Others are used widely in industry. The color of a diamond depends on the kind of impurities embedded inside it. Yellow diamonds, for example, betray minute quantities of nitrogen, while boron imparts a bluish hue. There are other inclusions in diamonds that have great scientific value. Such samples are time capsules that yield valuable information about conditions deep in the Earth’s upper mantle where diamonds formed, and yield clues to the formation and age of the diamond. Diamonds are the rich cousins of graphite, both crystalline forms of pure carbon. The enormous differences in their properties is a result of the way that carbon atoms are bonded together.