Peanut Butter Diamonds: How Scientists Make Luxury Out of Sandwich Spread

Peanut butter has been a source of delight since the time of the Aztecs, and just when it seems well decided that nothing can be done to improve upon an already good thing, scientists have figured out a way to make peanut butter even better.

Geophysicist Dan Frost has subjected peanut butter to forces equal to that of the Earth’s lower mantle, and in the process he has converted this treat into a treasure: a diamond.

The conditions in the Earth’s lower mantle — more than 1,800 miles below the surface — are intense. With temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius) and pressures 1.3 million times that of surface, peanut butter undergoes a radical change. Chemically, peanut butter exists as C₅₇H₁₀₄O₆ (roasted peanuts) and C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ (sucrose). Under such extreme conditions the oxygen and hydrogen atoms are stripped away, leaving carbon — the single ingredient of pure diamonds.

Source

You may also enjoy…

The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872: The Con That Bedazzled the Gilded Age

Discover the glittering deception behind the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872—a tale of greed, geology, gullibility, and one very salty patch of Wyoming that fooled America’s elite.

Keep reading

May 7, 2025May 6, 2025

Visit the Museum Where Peanut Butter is Art

If you like art, and if you are particularly fond of peanut butter, a visit to Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has all the makings for your perfect day. It is the home of an exhibit that will make any peanut butter lover’s mouth water. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen opened in 1849 and quickly became…

Keep reading

May 14, 2020October 21, 2021

A Diamond of a Discovery

Strangely reminiscent of the Planet Midnight in the BBC television program Doctor Who, this real life diamond planet orbits a star in the constellation Cancer. Composed largely of carbon, the surface temperature of 1,700 Celsius (3,100 Fahrenheit). Its large mass and extreme conditions are ideal for creating diamonds.   More than just produce diamonds, the planet…

Keep reading

January 16, 2016November 5, 2024