Mikhail Eremets and Ivan Troyan work only with the very best, gem-quality diamonds. Nothing else can handle the stresses involved - not when the two physicists make a habit of forcing the diamonds' tips together until the pressure between them reaches levels normally found at the centre of the Earth. Eremets and Troyan, both at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, are not alone in this strange pursuit. Their apparatus, known as a diamond anvil cell, is a standard fixture in high-pressure research labs.
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