Lab-grown diamonds can now be made in 150 minutes

There’s not that much you can get done in 2 and a half hours nowadays — you could only make it ~80% of the way into this year’s best picture winner, for example, or about midway through the average American teen’s daily social media screen time. Scientists, however, can now reportedly produce diamonds in a tight 150-minute time frame... while natural diamonds take anywhere from 1-3 billion years to form.

The new method rapidly heats and cools a mix of liquid metals at atmospheric pressure — a fraction of the pressure typically required to make the gems — marking the latest innovation in the world of lab-grown diamonds, which continues to threaten the entrenched diamond industry.

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The burgeoning business of growing synthetic stones is poised to upend a centuries-old industry, as the low cost of making rather than mining continues to drive prices down. Indeed, while natural diamond prices surged during the pandemic, the cost of both natural and man-made diamonds have plummeted in recent years, according to data from industry expert Paul Zimnisky via reporting from Bloomberg.

That’s bad news for jewel giants like De Beers, which is apparently being lined up to be offloaded by Anglo American, its parent company that recently received a $39B takeover bid from rival BHP Group. De Beers has been at the heart of diamond-mining controversy for decades, from reports on its environmental impacts to accusations of unethical production practices. For many, the cheaper, less damaging lab-grown alternatives offer a shinier prospect when picking out that special something.