Have you ever seen a diamond?

Nothing compares to its dazzling beauty, its sheer elegance, or its fiery brilliance. It is the hardest natural substance on earth.

It is, in fact, 40 times harder than a sapphire or a ruby, the next hardest minerals. Only another diamond can scratch a diamond.

A diamond is the greatest conductor of heat, is transparent over the greatest number of wavelengths, has the highest melting point (4,090 degrees Celsius — 2 1/2 times greater than that of steel!) and has a refractive index greater than any naturally occurring gemstone — giving it its characteristic fire and brilliance. Diamonds are among the rarest and costliest of gemstones.

But you may ask: What magical substance is a diamond made of? Ironically, just about the same substance found in one of the softest of all minerals — the graphite in the lead of your pencil!

Diamonds are pure crystalline carbon formed 200 kilometers deep within the earth millions of years ago. The...