A pink diamond just sold for over US$ 14 million – no wonder, when you look at the mysteries behind their chemistry

By Elton Santos, Reader in Theoretical and Computational Condensed Matter Physics, University of Edinburgh

Diamonds might be forever but that doesn’t stop them being bought and sold. One stone thought to have once belonged to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, has just sold for US$14 million (£10 million) at an auction in New York – about three times the asking price. Set into a platinum ring and weighing a total of 15.5 grams, the clue to the diamond’s uniqueness is in its name: the Marie-Thérèse pink.

This 10.38 carat pink diamond has been changing…

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