Scientists Turn Ordinary Plastic Into Billions of Tiny Diamonds Using Powerful Lasers

Diamonds recovered from plastic contain roughly 3,000 atoms each and could be modified with other elements for future use in medical imaging. Powerful lasers can turn plastic into tiny diamonds, but recovering the crystals means catching them as they shoot out at speeds comparable to a meteorite impact. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and [...]