In modern times, diamond-tipped tools, such as drill bits, burrs and saw blades, are used to carve and shape gemstones due to their exceptional hardness and ability to cut through just about any material. But, did you know that ancient jewelers knew that secret more than 2,000 years ago? According to a new study published […]
A rare gem-set ring once worn by a bishop in medieval England is set to hit the auction block at Noonans Mayfair in London on March 26. Dated to the late 12th or early 13th centuries, the gold ring is set with a central hexagonal cabochon sapphire surrounded by smaller bezel-set satellite stones, specifically two […]
As skygazers in North America were enjoying the spectacle of a total lunar eclipse late Thursday night, a lunar lander captured the same eclipse — including a "diamond ring effect" — from a totally different point of view. And the results were spectacular. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander, which successfully descended to the moon's […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the Thai-German pop star known as Ploychompoo performs “Diamonds,” a 2017 tune about a boyfriend who brings out the best in her and gives her the confidence to shine like a precious stone. […]
Lady Gaga revealed on Tuesday’s episode of the Howard Stern Show how her now-fiancé Michael Polansky proposed to her with a simple blade of grass — before augmenting the symbolic, but modest, token of his love with an oval-cut diamond ring said to be worth upwards of $2 million. “He got me two rings and […]
New York City Transit workers recently came to the aid of a distraught woman who had accidentally dropped an irreplaceable 18-karat gold ring into a subway grate above the "6" line in East Harlem. Bronx resident Myra Lora and her boyfriend were walking along Lexington Avenue at 103rd Street when Lora went to take off […]
On January 26, 1905, Captain Frederick Wells was conducting a standard inspection of the Premier Mine in South Africa about 18 feet below the surface when a glint off the wall caught his eye. At first, he thought it was a shard of glass embedded by a practical joker. But, then he pulled out his […]
A team of Egyptian and French archaeologists recently unearthed a 2,600-year-old "pot of gold" at Karnak Temple near Luxor, Egypt. The most remarkable item extracted from the broken pottery vessel was a gold statuette honoring the ancient deities Amun, Khonsu and Mut. Referred to as the Theban Triad, the three figures included Amun, the chief […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you nostalgic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today’s tune, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” has its roots in New York City during the Roaring Twenties. In the song, a young suitor tells his girlfriend that he really wants to […]
New analysis of 26 jewelry artifacts unearthed 60 years ago at early Iron Age graveyards in Poland — and stored unceremoniously at the Częstochowa Museum — revealed that five of them were crafted from meteoric metal. Armed with cutting-edge technology, Polish and French scientists recently revisited the 2,700-year-old objects extracted from burial sites at Częstochowa-Raków […]