Diamonds Lose Mass in Sunlight

I was surfing the net about contemporary science issues and this particular article caught my attention. I was surprised how 'weak' this strong element, made up of carbon atoms, actually was. And this element is a diamond. According to the article, physicists have discovered that diamond would react in the sunlight, by losing atoms, at a very slow rate. From this article, only have I realized how useful diamond was. Not only can it be used for creating expensive jewelry, it can also be used to emit laser light and for quantum communication and computing. This is because of the structure of the diamond, which is made up of carbon atoms, which allows reactions when the atoms are burnt. Because of the unique structure of the diamond, the researchers decided to try to explore further with the diamond, trying to emit UV (Ultra Violet) light out of it. Well, it worked, but only for a short 10 minutes. It was after this accidental experiment that they tried which led them to this diamond discovery, because they were desorbing carbon atoms. The article continues to explain how this process actually works.

This article can be found at the website stated below:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=diamonds-lose-mass-in-sunlight

Through this article, I've roughly understood how the carbon atom works, as well as the properties of diamond. Also, I've found this video which explains how light is produced from diamonds. :D