They say diamonds are forever. And now the dearly departed can be, too. A Chicago company says it has developed a process for turning cremated human remains into diamonds that can be worn as jewelry. "We're building on the simple fact that all living creatures are carbon-based and diamonds are carbon-based," said Greg Herro, head of LifeGem Memorials. The blue diamonds are the answer to people who think a tombstone or an urn full of ashes is not personal enough. And they are portable, Herro said. Herro, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, said he has spent three years refining the process, successfully making a diamond from cremated human remains in July 2002. A small thimbleful of ashes can be made into 0.25 car at diamond, for which LifeGem would charge $4,000. A full karat would cost $22,000. The ash is first purified in a vacuum induction furnace at about 5,400 degrees. It is then placed in a press under intense pressure and heat, replicating the forces that create a natural diamond. It takes about 16 weeks. Synthetic, or man-made, diamonds have been manufactured from carbon since the mid-1950s, when General Electric Co. developed the process for making small diamonds for industrial uses.

人们说，钻石是永恒的。如今，我们亲爱的逝者也可以同样不朽。芝加哥一家公司宣称它已经开发出了一种工艺，能把人的骨灰做成可以当珠宝佩戴的钻石。生命珍宝纪念品公司负责人格里格·赫罗说：“我们的工艺基于这样一个简单的事实：所有生物都是碳基的，而钻石也是由碳元素构成的。”赫罗说，这些蓝色的钻石为那些认为墓碑或是骨灰瓮不够人性化的人提供了理想选择，而且它们便于携带。自称为企业家的赫罗说他花了3年时间来改进工艺，终于在2002年7月成功地用骨灰做出了一颗钻石。做一颗0.25克拉的钻石只需要很少量的骨灰，生命珍宝公司将为此收费4千美元。整整1克拉钻石的价码则是2万2千美元。骨灰首先被放进真空感应电炉，在大约5千4百度的高温下进行精炼，然后再移入压榨机中。压榨机中的高温高压是模拟生成天然钻石的环境条件。整个过程约需16个星期。人们从20世纪50年代中期就开始用碳来制造合成或人工钻石，当时通用电气公司开发出了生产工业用小钻石的工艺。

Remarks：我以为把骨灰转化成石墨同素异构体的纪念方式比墓碑更加不personal。而且，像“怀念”和“铭记”这样深刻和内在的东西，为什么要以如此肤浅、如此表面的方式来表达呢？