Laser sawing of diamonds is beginning to revolutionize the diamond-cutting industry. Not only does the laser saw offer savings in time and money, but it also enables the cutting of material virtually ...

Following up on Nassau's 1981 article on the technical aspects of heat treating ruby and sapphire, the author reports his personal observations of the actual heat treatment process in Bangkok. He ...

The world's first commercially available synthetic cat's-eye alexandrite chrysoberyl is now being manufactured and marketed by the Kyocera Corporation in Kyoto, Japan. Kyocera markets synthetic ...

Synthetic emeralds grown hydrothermally in an alkali-free, chlorine-bearing solution have been manufactured in Guilin, China, since 1987. Diagnostic microscopic features include growth and color ...

Since Robert Crowningshield's discovery in the late 1950s that diamonds that have been artificially colored by irradiation and subsequent annealing could be identified by their characteristic ...

CARLSBAD, Calif. – April 7, 2025 – In response to logistics challenges related to recently announced tariffs affecting global shipments of gemstones, GIA (Gemological Institute of America) will ...

A look at the history of analytical instruments used for gem testing. UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy measures how gemstones absorb and interact with light across the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared ...

Cultured pearls come in different sizes, shapes, and colors. Perhaps the best-loved gems of all time, pearls—both natural and modern cultured pearls—occur in a wide variety of colors. The most ...

This note deals with some gemological applications for a tool well known to microscopists: the first-order red compensator. In gemological microscopy, the compensator can be useful in locating ...

The refractive indices of the synthetic overgrowth on the beryl seeds of Lechleitner synthetic emeralds show a linear correlation with the chromium content of the coating. In a sample with refractive ...