What's On The Edge Of A Diamond?

I realise it's a crystal lattice, but the diagrams merely show the edges going on forever, how diamonds have fixed shapes, what happens at edges? Surely there aren't just carbon bonds floating around.

>>17
which makes me wonder if microwave-heated water is really different than convection-heated water, inasmuch as Human consumption is concerned.
*sigh* You're useless. Water forms many SOLID molecular structures. You can't form molecular structures in a liquid. Also, MICROWAVE PARANOIA, tinfoil hat time. Aside from boiling your food, microwaving it is by far the safest way to cook food because you don't get any carcinogens from grilling or frying it.

>>13,15
That doesn't seem to happen with diamonds that are worked (as industrial diamonds in drill bits, etc.) such that they would reveal such a process.
Actually they do. That's why they still sell diamond needles for old record players; the needles get worn out through heavy use and have to be replaced.

Your original assessment is flawed anyway; much more than the top layer of diamond is lost in a drill pass. Fun math time, diamond has a density of 3.5 g/cm^3, carbon 12 g/mol => there are 1.76e+23 carbon atoms per cubic centimeter of diamond. If only the top layer of carbon were transformed to graphite and seared off in each drill pass, it would still take more than the age of the universe to run through a drill bit.

I'm sorry, #20, but it's not paranoia -- just a musing.  And you're also wrong about the structures water forms in liquid form.  Experiments have found long-lasting chains of water molecules, as well as other structures (clumps, mostly).  Since water is a polar molecule, that it would form temporary structures in liquid form is not surprising; what surprised me is the longevity.  You can google around a bit yourself.

I do have a friend who does subscribe to the "microwaved food and water are unhealthy" set.  I keep urging her to obtain proof of those assertions.  However, it's not rational to AVOID wondering if microwaves do cause unhealthy chemical changes.  It remains for experimenters to seek in those directions; certainly I can't perform any such experiments here for direct testing ... I'd have to use the model of clinical trials with myself as the sole subject.  Not only does the latter have serious reliability flaws, but I don't want to find out such information in that fashion.

For the record, I do have a microwave and I do use it on occasion to re-heat food and water.  The installed base of microwave cooking strongly suggests that any harm it does is either too low to care about, or too long term to reliably detect.  And as a final note, when microwaving, I keep away from the unit; there's no reason to trust the unit's shielding more than I absolutely have to.  After all, if the shielding should fail and microwaves start caramelizing the humors of my eyes (for example), what real warning would I have before my vision began to blur (permanently!)?