This summer, the first wave of gem-quality manufactured diamonds began to hit the market. The sudden appearance of multicarat, gem-quality synthetics has sent De Beers scrambling. An amazing Wired story on how this technology was transferred to the United States from Russia by an enterprising U.S. general.
While women may salivate at having gem stones, the implications for the tech industry are massive as diamond may replace silicon in the production of integrated circuits.
Wired August 13, 2003