From Monday 4th to Sunday 10th July, The Royal Society in London opened its doors to the public as it hosted the Summer Science Exhibition, a week-long free festival of visionary science and technology.

Imagine a diamond. What do you see? Many people will think of a glittering gemstone on jewellery. But the amazing properties of diamond make it ideal for a host of cutting edge applications in electronics, computing, sensing, measuring and more. Our exhibit highlighted the extreme properties and enormous potential of this material, revealing diamond as so much more than just a gemstone.

Staff and students from the DST CDT along with other diamond groups at Warwick, put on an exhibit entitled "Diamond: More Than Just A Gemstone", providing the public with a unique opportunity to learn about the fascinating properties of diamond, as well as its diverse scientific applications.

Hands-on at this exhibit: Compare the heat conduction of diamond and other materials as you cut through ice. Use a laser-based diamond magnetometer to measure the Earth’s magnetic field. See how diamond electrodes can be used to split water. The unique arrangement of carbon atoms in diamond gives it many extreme characteristics that can be used in science and engineering. For example, it is a fantastic conductor of heat and can dramatically improve cooling in electronic circuits for better efficiency, reliability and higher power operation. Scientific advances have made it possible to make high quality diamond on a large scale in specialist labs. Synthetic diamonds can be tailor-made to have particular properties, such as black diamonds, which conduct electricity and be used as electrodes to remove environmental pollutants from water.