Scientists Squeeze Diamonds to Create an Even Harder Material

Is there a way of making diamonds harder?iStock
Is there a way of making diamonds harder?iStock
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Scientists Squeeze Diamonds to Create an Even Harder Material

Is there a way of making diamonds harder?iStock
Is there a way of making diamonds harder?iStock

Diamond is one of the hardest materials known to man, but experts think it can be squashed into something even harder, according to indy100 news site.

While it was previously thought to be one of the hardest materials because of its tetrahedral lattice, which is an incredibly rugged particle structure, experts have figured out a way to transform it into something even harder, it said.

Physicists from the US and Sweden have come up with a simulation that is believed to be 30 percent more resistant to compression than diamonds.

The experts ran quantum-accurate molecular-dynamics simulations on a supercomputer, in order to test how diamond behaves under high pressure and temperatures which should theoretically make it unstable.

Their results revealed how details about the conditions under which carbon atoms in diamonds can be pushed to create the unusual structure.

The configuration is known as the eight-atom body-centered cubic (BC8) phase and has only been observed on Earth in two other materials – silicon and germanium.

Physicist Jon Eggert, from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, explained: “The BC8 structure maintains this perfect tetrahedral nearest-neighbor shape, but without the cleavage planes found in the diamond structure.”

While the theory is sound, attempts to synthesise it, in reality, have as yet been unsuccessful. This is because there is a very small region of temperature and pressure under which the BC8 phase can occur and those ranges are unknown.

“We predicted that the post-diamond BC8 phase would be experimentally accessible only within a narrow high-pressure, high-temperature region of the carbon phase diagram,” said Physicist Ivan Olyenik from the University of South Florida.



UK's Oldest Man, WWII Veteran, Donald Rose, Dies at 110

WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
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UK's Oldest Man, WWII Veteran, Donald Rose, Dies at 110

WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)

Britain’s oldest World War II veteran, Donald Rose, has died at the age of 110.

Rose participated in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, and was part of the division that liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany.

In a statement Friday, the leader of the Erewash Borough Council in the north of England, James Dawson, announced Rose's death, calling him a “war hero.”

“Erewash was privileged to count him as a resident," he added, The AP news reported.

In May, Rose joined 45 other veterans as guests of honor at a tea party celebration hosted by the Royal British Legion at the National Memorial Arboretum, to mark 80 years since Victory in Europe Day.

Rose, who was born on Christmas Eve in 1914 following the outbreak of hostilities in World War I, said at the event that he did not celebrate VE Day at the time.

“When I heard that the armistice had been signed 80 years ago, I was in Germany at Belsen and, like most active soldiers, I didn’t get to celebrate at that time," he said. “We just did what we thought was right and it was a relief when it was over.”

Originally from the village of Westcott, southwest of London, Rose joined the army aged 23 and served in North Africa, Italy and France, according to the Royal British Legion. He received a number of medals and was awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur.

Rose is also believed to have been the UK’s oldest man.