You can soften your sweetie with diamonds, but to soften a diamond — the hardest material on Earth — takes some special chemistry.
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New research finds that a liquidlike layer of carbon at the interface between a diamond-polishing wheel and a diamond creates the magic that turns a grubby stone into a girl’s best friend.
New polishing tricks may emerge from the research, perhaps allowing scientists to exploit diamonds for use in semiconductors or optics. And the computational modeling approach used in the study, published online November 28 in Nature Materials, could aid in understanding wear in materials such as metals or ceramics.