[narses]

I excerpted this, a great read, follow the link for the rest.

[Nateman]

Most synthetic diamonds are yellow because nitrogen gets in. Make them in a room filled with helium or neon and you will get nice white diamonds. The real beauty is that you can make them in custom colors. Not only that but using lasers you can sculpture them. Imagine making a blue diamond , then using a laser to shape it into a lover one's face, then growing a transparent layer of diamond on top of that. You can do some truly amazing things. If you put in a tiny bit of radioactive cesium into the diamond it would actually glow blue. This is really the start of whole new field of art!

 One thing this article didn't mention was an accidental way to make huge diamonds. Someone who was trying to wield an object with argon make the mistake of using a CO2 tank and ending up making a layer of diamond,a layer which it turned out could be made as thick as you wanted by adding other layers..

[Mike Darancette]

Diamonds are expensive due to the monopoly of a very few companies that guard their supply even to the lengths branding diamonds from other sources as evil.

I have heard that some colored gems are actually rarer than diamonds but cost less.

[thoughtomator]

Potential husbands everywhere, rejoice!