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At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire, and is approximately 2 billion years old. (Image credit: D. Finnin/Copyright AMNH) ================================================================== What does the legendary Star of India — a 563-carat star sapphire the size of a golf ball — have in common with a 35-million-year-old petrified redwood slab; a massive cluster of sword-like crystals that looks like it came from "Game of Thrones;" and a 5-ton (4.5-metric ton) stone pillar that can "sing?" You can see all of them, along with 5,000 other amazing stones, in the newly renovated Mignone Hall of...

Apple has been using sapphire on its iPhone camera lenses for a few years now since the launch of the iPhone 5S, but it might not be as scratch resistant as you'd expect. A new video raises questions over Apple's use of sapphire in its iPhone camera lens, and includes scratch tests to rate its durability. While Apple claims it uses sapphire crystal in its iPhone lens, tests by YouTuber JerryRigEverything show that Apple could be using a more cost effective sapphire laminate on top of regular glass. JerryRigEverything tested Apple's iPhone lens with an XRF machine and electron microscope,...

Transmittance spectrum of the 54Al2O3-46Ta2O5 glass in the UV/vis region. The inset picture shows the glass sample used for the transmittance experiment. Credit: (c) 2015 Scientific Reports (2015). DOI: 10.1038/srep15233 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (Phys.org)—A team of researchers with The University of Tokyo and Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute has created a type of glass that is stronger than many metals. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers describe how they overcame one of the major hurdles in creating glass imbued with extra amounts of an oxide of aluminum, by using what they call aerodynamic levitation. Glass that does...

Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed How Bill Clinton concealed it from the public and U.S. intelligence. October 7, 2015 Arnold Ahlert    A bombshell report by the Washington Times reveals that fecklessness in the face of terror isn’t a condition exclusive to the Obama administration. "Bill Clinton’s administration gathered enough evidence to send a top-secret communique accusing Iran of facilitating the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist bombing,” the Times states, "but suppressed that information from the American public and some elements of U.S. intelligence for fear it would lead to an outcry for reprisal, according to documents and interviews.” Nineteen American...

Corundum is a rock-forming mineral that is found in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. It is an aluminum oxide with a chemical composition of Al2O3 and a hexagonal crystal structure. The mineral is widely known for its extreme hardness and for the fact that it is sometimes found as beautiful transparent crystals in many different colors. The extreme hardness makes corundum an excellent abrasive, and when that hardness is found in beautiful crystals, you have the perfect material for cutting gemstones.

Apple Inc. may have disappointed many consumers by not putting sapphire glass covers on its new iPhone, but the scratch-resistant material is gradually making its way into mobile devices despite manufacturing challenges and high costs. Speculation had been rife in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's unveiling of the iPhone 6 that some models would have the extra protection after Apple partnered in November with U.S.-based GT Advanced Technologies Inc. , a mineral crystal specialist, to make sapphire materials for its devices. Apple said sapphire glass would be used on its first smartwatch. It also continues to use the durable...

ALON® is an amazing new advanced ceramic that is based on a composition of aluminum oxy nitride with a cubic spinel crystal structure. It is hard, durable, and transparent in the near ultra violet, visible and near infrared wavelength of light. ALON® is synthesized and manufactured in tonnage commercial quantities by Surmet Corporation, the global leader in transparent optical ceramics technologies. Surmet is vertically integrated and synthesizes tonnage quantities of high purity ALON® powder for its own use. Surmet is a supplier of ALON® optical windows, domes, plates, rods and tubes for advanced applications. Fabricated ALON® products combine superior mechanical...

People are freaking out all over Norway because of what you are seeing here. According to Norwegian news outlets, the spooky giant spiral was seen, photographed, and recorded on video from all over the country. Updated with video. Could it all be a hoax? Maybe it's a massive joke, but all kinds of Norwegian news sites are reporting on it. According to NKR—Norway's national TV channel—it could be related to a rocket fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The Russians are denying any part on it at this at the moment. Nick Banbury, a witness located...

Your Next Smartphone Screen May Be Made of Sapphire Manufactured sapphire is incredibly strong and scratch resistant. Now falling costs and technology improvements could make it competitive with glass. Why It Matters Gorilla Glass is great, but iPhone screens can still shatter. Crystal clear: These unpolished, uncut boules of manufactured-sapphire crystal weigh 130 kilograms (left) and 100 kilograms (right). Manufactured sapphire—a material that’s used as transparent armor on military vehicles—could become cheap enough to replace the glass display covers on mobile phones. That could mean smartphone screens that don’t crack when you drop them and can’t be scratched with keys,...

This could change everything you know about electrical power or computers.

Researchers in South Korea and the UK have produced a film that makes electricity when you bend it - and crucially it is over a million times better at this than other crystalline solids with the same properties. Their approach makes it possible to control the strength of permanent electric fields in designer films, which is required for devices like photovoltaics. Piezoelectric materials generate electric fields when pressed or pulled. In contrast, flexoelectric materials produce these fields when bent - they react to variation in strain across the material, rather than strain itself. But because solids are typically difficult to bend,...

Public Release: 11-Feb-2005 ArchaeometryChinese used diamonds to polish sapphire-rich stone in 2500 BC Researchers have uncovered strong evidence that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to grind and polish ceremonial stone burial axes as long as 6,000 years ago -– and incredibly, did so with a level of skill difficult to achieve even with modern polishing techniques. The finding, reported in the February issue of the journal Archaeometry, places this earliest known use of diamond worldwide thousands of years earlier than the gem is known to have been used elsewhere. Harvard University's Asia Center, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Princeton...

Tiny nanotubes are big news in science. Now a research group headed by Dr. Ernesto Joselevich of the Weizmann Institute of Science has developed a new approach to create patterns of carbon nanotubes by having them form along atomic steps on sapphire surfaces. "The orientation and form of the atomic steps on a crystal surface can be controlled by the cutting process, and defects can be created artificially," says Joselevich. "It should thus be possible to produce different nanowire arrangements in a controlled fashion."

<p>WASHINGTON — After a bombing killed 19 U.S. airmen at a barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the Clinton administration struck back by unmasking Iranian intelligence officers around the world, significantly disrupting Iranian-backed terrorism, according to a high-level U.S. official and a former top official who was serving at the time of the operation.</p>