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Article: RPI USES PARTICAL ACCELERATOR TO MAKE TOPAZ FROM CLEAR QUARTZ.(Living Today)(Correction notice)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- April 17, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Robert Whitaker Staff writer
Over the past 10 years, blue topaz has become one of the more popular stones for jewelry. What many topaz owners don't know is that they are wearing a stone that was clear when it was dug from the ground and then turned blue with a good zap of ... radiation.
"It's a beautiful example of how the radiation process can turn something with no commercial value into something of commercial value," said Robert Block, head of the Nuclear Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
RPI's Gaerttner Laboratory is one of a handful of labs in the world where particle accelerators are used to color the ...