Transworld/YamabikaY/Shutterstock
‘Gemstones are the earth’s creation, but they are a human fascination.’
Stasis Photo/Shutterstock
From Archimedes’ principle to mass spectrometry, there are plenty of ways to test the purity of gold.
Two trucks transport gold ore from Barrick Cowal Gold Mine in New South Wales, Australia.
Jason Benz Bennee/Shutterstock
A gradual drawdown of gold mining is a critical step towards sustainability.
The Attallah Cross.
Courtesy of Sotheby's
In purchasing iconic items previously owned by other celebrities, Kim Kardashian is negotiating her own place in the celebrity sphere.
Michelle Obama in the necklace that went viral.
Democratic National Convention
From hunger strike medals to brooches shaped like serpents and spiders, women’s jewellery can speak volumes.
Sandra Wilson in the Love Chemistry Laboratory, Edinburgh, working with gold chloride.
David Cheskin
There’s 33 times more gold in the average handset than in the equivalent amount of ore. Yet the vast majority is never recovered.
Pictured is a slag pile at Broken Hill in New South Wales. Slag is a man-made waste product created during smelting.
Anita Parbhakar-Fox
Manufacturing minerals is an expanding field of study. Making more of them could help alleviate various pressures faced by our growing population. But how are they made, and where can they be used?
Girton College, University of Cambridge
The president of the UK’s supreme court delivered a hugely newsworthy judgment, but attention focused on her brooch.
Amber held high value in past human cultures, and it may have been lucrative to create fake beads for trade.
from www.shutterstock.com
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000-year-old amber bead scam. But humans have been making fake jewels and icons for much longer than that.
Feeling blue? An Oppenheimer Blue diamond of 14.62 carats.
EPA/AAP
Some diamonds come from depths of more than 650km. Tiny imperfections in these gems give us clues about what’s happening in Earth’s hidden geological layers.
Necklaces and earrings in traditional Kenyan cultures denote messages about marriage and childbearing.
from www.shutterstock.com
Why is jewellery so important to the story of human evolution? Because it provides a public message – even to people we don’t know.
The first three Natural History Museum painites – including one in its natural state with rubies that had been sitting in their collection for years. It had initially been misidentified as the much less valuable tourmaline.
© The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
What makes a stone a gem? It boils down to a few key qualities: beauty and durability. But opal, the national gemstone of Australia, is an anomaly - it’s soft.
According to an American Express report, more than six million US couples are expected to get engaged on Valentine’s Day.
Pexels
Why do we attach sentimental value to objects and other things?
The Makalani nut is a Namibian treasure.
From unpublished Master's thesis of Michelle Olga van Wyk
Namibian crafters may be on the verge of commercial success with the carving of the Makalani nut. But they are not sure if they want to commercialise operations.
Alexandra Lande/Shutterstock
Problems occur when a country falls in love with gold, and silver might be about to get a boost from proposed solutions.
123dartist / shutterstock.com
More than 95% of industrial diamonds are synthetic so why aren’t more people using them in engagement rings?