Diamonds are made of carbon, and since peanut butter is rich in carbon, scientists in Germany successfully transformed this snack into gemstones. By using extreme pressure, they mimicked the conditions deep inside the Earth!
Diamonds are often seen as rare treasures, but to a chemist, they are simply a very organized form of carbon. Since carbon is the building block of life, almost anything organic - including your favorite sandwich spread - can technically become a diamond.
Geoscientist Dan Frost at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany wanted to understand how the Earth's lower mantle works.
While the experiment worked, you won't see these in jewelry stores soon:
The "Peanut Butter Diamond" proves that chemistry is everywhere. It's a spectacular reminder that Earth's natural processes can take something as simple as food and, over millions of years, turn it into the hardest substance on the planet.
