Diamonds Can Be Made from Peanut Butter

The recipe for a diamond is surprisingly simple: take a carbon source, add immense heat, and apply crushing pressure. While the Earth typically uses carbon deposits buried deep in the mantle, scientists have demonstrated that the source material can be far more mundane. Because it is a carbon-rich substance, peanut butter became a fascinating, if unconventional, candidate for an experiment designed to mimic the extreme conditions found hundreds of miles below the Earth's surface. The goal wasn't to create jewelry from a sandwich spread, but to better understand geological processes.

In a German laboratory, researchers placed a tiny sample of peanut butter into a device called a diamond anvil cell, which can generate extraordinary force. By squeezing the sample to pressures over a million times greater than our atmosphere, they were able to force the hydrogen atoms out of the peanut butter's molecular structure, leaving the carbon behind. Under this incredible strain, the remaining carbon atoms had no choice but to reorganize themselves into the most compact and stable structure possible: the iconic crystal lattice of a diamond.

While this proves that the carbon in our food can indeed become a gemstone, you won't be seeing peanut butter diamonds on the market. The resulting gems were microscopic, and the process is far too complex and expensive for commercial production. Instead, the experiment serves as a brilliant demonstration that the fundamental building blocks of a diamond are all around us, just waiting for the planetary-level pressure needed to transform them.