from plastic to diamonds--realizing an alchemist\'s dream : gems: a hong kong scientist is making tiny jewels from shopping bags and other reclaimed junk. investors remain skeptical.

A person\'s garbage is the wealth of another person. This motto is the real life of a Hong Kong scientist who uses cheap plastic garbage and even shopping bags to make diamonds.
In a simple, inexpensive University experiment, Professor hiloka is harvesting tiny precious diamonds from ubiquitous plastics and is starting to attract the attention of the world.
He admits that his diamond is not yet the girl\'s best friend.
But if he achieves his ambition, he can produce a series of diamonds --
He said in an interview that coated clothing jewelry.
So far, the professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has not made millions.
Trade dollar gems in his way
\"This is not a threat to the diamond industry,\" said Thomas Wong, president of diamond importer Assn . \". here.
\"These crystals are not visible to the naked eye.
\"Shiloka and his students are not the first to try again.
Create precious stones of eternal nature in the laboratory.
For centuries, there have been a lot of losses in backyard refiners and mining giants trying to re-engineer
Create one of the most powerful substances in the world, so there is little natural discovery.
But no one succeeded in making gems so cheap and easy, the Japanese who kept them said
The born professor gave a speech on his findings in the United States.
Hiraoka has applied for a patent for this simple process and is confident that it will become a business one day.
\"No one is doing this technology,\" Hiraoka said while investigating his amateur love --
Watch the equipment
Of course we can make jewelry.
\"Plastic is the raw material used because it is rich in carbon, the only ingredient in pure diamonds.
And very cheap.
The secrets are all technical.
Pinggang uses the size of the university, old
Old-fashioned laser machines and other obviously clumsy devices that make crystals.
The laser sends a shock wave through the plastic in the vacuum chamber, producing a fireball and spewing tiny precious crystals.
They threw themselves evenly on a special silicone.
The surface is coated and glued together like glue.
\"As you can see, this is a very simple setup --
\"Well,\" said the proud professor . \" He is measuring a glittering diamond deposit of several microns thick. The rock-
The hard shiny coating looks very similar to the stainless steel.
Despite Hong Kong\'s love for diamonds and the purchase of $1 billion in polished diamonds in the first half of this year, Hiraoka has a hard time getting funding from corporate sponsors to push the experiment to the next stage.
Other synthetic techniques are very expensive and require a mixture of extremely high temperatures and expensive graphite, and the results are often incomplete and do not stick together.
As a result, the cost-effectiveness of mining industrial diamonds is much higher, with industrial diamonds accounting for more than half of any diamond reserves, analysts say.
But plastic is always
Scientists claim that even with outdated equipment, his results are better than those of his peers.
His favorite thing is plastic shopping bags and even polystyrene.
He bought it at the department store.
The scientist and his students admit that they are not really producing hope diamonds, but some experimental, two.
Sample size.