To synthesize the crystals, the team compressed highly ordered pyrolytic graphite to pressures as high as 20 gigapascals, ...

Diamonds are famous for their strength, but scientists have long suspected that another form of diamond might be even harder.

A team of researchers has reported the first laboratory synthesis and recovery of bulk hexagonal diamond, a crystal form long predicted to be harder than the conventional gems used in cutting tools ...

Diamond is famously known as the hardest mineral on Earth. “There are hundreds of claims from people who believe they have seen it,” says Oliver Tschauner, a mineralogical crystallographer at the ...