JEWELLERS say that every gemstone is unique, and soon they may be able to prove it. That will make it easier to recover lost or stolen gems, even after they are cut or altered.
The jewellery industry has long looked for ways to establish a gemstone’s type and quality, and to spot fakes. But identifying individual stones is difficult because there are so many, and the good ones are quite similar.
Now a technique dubbed “microspectrometry” could change that, by mapping the unique colour patterns of each gem. Mike Eyring of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Paul Martin of CRAIC Technologies in Altadena, California,…
