8. Diamonds
In recent years more and more businesses have come up with the idea of offering to turn the cremated remains of our deceased family and animals into diamonds, or “memory diamonds,” as they prefer to call them. This type of gemstone is formed of carbon, which is the second most abundant element in human bodies, so the process works.
Everything starts with cremation. After that, the human body produces several pounds of ashes. However, contaminants are frequently present, and they are removed when the ash is cleaned with acid. At this time, the carbon is 99% pure, but it still contains roughly 1% of a few additional elements, such as boron.
Usually, the boron is not touched, because it has a similar consistency to carbon and it’s difficult to separate these two. There is also a side to this because boron can make a diamond blue.
