Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: cloister@milton.u.washington.edu (cloister bell) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Diamonds? Keywords: diamonds, bones Message-ID: Date: 12 Apr 91 20:43:23 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Washington Lines: 19 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu diamond might make for nifty skeletons, but i wouldn't want to have it as bone material. i mention this because it seems likely that some will construe the preceeding discussion into the area of artificial prostheses for reconstructive surgery. diamond has a very definite lattice structure, and shatters under the right kind of blow. this is why lapidaries can do rough working of diamond with steel tools, which are softer than the diamonds. while i have never personally seen a shattered diamond, i can only imagine that the fragments are rather sharp, and would cause a *lot* of damage to the fleshy bits before the doctors could get them out. -- +-------------------------------------------------+---------------------------+ |i thought of a good sig, but it was a sight gag. | cloister@u.washington.edu | +-------------------------------------------------+---------------------------+ [No one, I trust, would try to make a bone or any other part with a similar function out of a single crystal of diamond ... imagine making a bone of glass. Yet you can make tough, non-shatterable objects of fiberglass, and you could do the same thing with diamond if you wanted. --JoSH]