Is It Actually Possible To Turn Peanut Butter Into Diamonds?
If you're in the market for an engagement ring, you might skip the trip to Jared and head to the nut butter aisle at the grocery store instead. A German scientist discovered that peanut butter could be converted into diamonds under specific conditions. All you need to do is simulate the conditions found in the earth's mantle and find out if they pair well with chocolate diamonds.
According to Popular Mechanics, Geophysicist Dan Frost of the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany researched how crystalline structures formed in the Earth's lower mantle when he discovered a natural process that pulls carbon dioxide from the Earth's crust into the deeper layers of our planet. The process that reaps oxygen from the carbon dioxide leaves carbon behind to form diamonds once subjected to immense temperatures and pressure.
Peanut butter is a carbon-rich food that made its way out of the lunchbox and into the lab, where it was pressurized by powerful machinery set 1.3 million times higher than the air around us and heated to temperatures found 500 miles below the Earth's surface (via BBC). The experiment, although messy, did change the crystal structure and yield a peanut butter diamond. So, is it time to buy stock in Skippy? Maybe not just yet.
Scientists want to experiment with peanut butter diamonds for different reasons
Nut butter enthusiasts who are hopeful that their jar of Jif is worth its weight in gemstones will be disappointed to discover that making diamonds out of peanut butter isn't a real money maker. The scientists who discovered that peanut butter subjected to specific conditions could turn into a diamond aren't about to quit their day jobs to become jewelers, but they are hopeful that their discovery will be useful in other ways.
According to BBC, humans still have quite a bit to learn about the composition of the Earth and how it was formed. Simulating the conditions inside the deeper layers of the Earth's mantle and studying the effects of those conditions on carbon extracted from peanut butter can teach us a lot about how our planet came about and continues to function. Wonderopolis explains that man-made diamonds used in jewelry are already produced with materials that are more efficient than peanut butter, but automotive and mining industries use diamonds to cut and polish materials because of their strength and could benefit from having another resource that can produce the gemstones.
Unless you can mimic the heat and pressure of the Earth's mantle in your home kitchen, your favorite peanut butter won't be turning to diamonds anytime soon. But knowing that diamonds can be made from peanut butter might make you appreciate that PBJ sandwich a bit more.