“Fortunately, the majority of gentlemen who are persuaded to steal things don’t really know a huge amount about science”
This is a choice quote in a fascinating article, New Australian technology tracks down gold thieves and blood diamonds ["New tech to trace dodgy diamonds" in the print edition] in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) Weekend.
It describes the work of John Watling, Chief Scientist at the company Source Certain. Basically by measuring the relative amounts of different trace elements [chemical impurities] in a sample of gold or diamond one can determine what mine that it has come from.
Besides identifying blood diamonds, I suppose this may be used to help preserve the diamond monopoly held by De Beer!
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