Horizon
Season 41 Episode 7 - Diamond Labs
Top quality diamonds at knock down prices? The only catch is: these rocks don't come out of the ground, but are made in a lab. This is the promise offered by a series of recent scientific breakthroughs. For most of us, it seems we may soon be able to bejewel ourselves like movie stars. But for De Beers, the world's largest diamond trader, could this, one day, be a serious threat? Following a dodgy meeting in Moscow, retired US Army General Carter Clarke acquired some experimental diamond growing machines, originally destined for the Russian military. He created the world's first gem diamond production line, to mass produce highly prized coloured diamonds. In a secret location south of Boston, a father and son team developed a different technique. Robert Linares and son Bryant have made colourless diamonds, allegedly higher quality than those found in nature. De Beers, at vast cost, set up a new scientific division called the Gem Defensive Programme. Its goal: to find ways to tell apart their natural diamonds from these new synthetic gems. But will the new synthetics slip through De Beers detection net? And could anyone really tell the difference? Horizon tells the story of the Diamond Labs.
Episodes in Season 41
The Demonic Ape
60 min
The Moscow Theatre Siege
60 min
The Atkins Diet
60 min
Secrets of the Star Disc
60 min
The Dark Secret of Hendrik Schön
60 min
Thalidomide - A Second Chance?
60 min
Diamond Labs
60 min
T-Rex - Warrior or Wimp?
60 min
Project Poltergeist
60 min
The Truth of Troy
60 min
The Truth About Vitamins
60 min
King Solomon's Tablet of Stone
60 min
Derek Tastes of Earwax
60 min
What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?
60 min
Making Millions the Easy Way
60 min
Saturn - Lord of the Rings
60 min
The Hunt for the Supertwister
60 min
Dr Money and the Boy with No Penis
60 min
