Chinese craftsmen used diamonds and sapphire to polish tools thousands of years earlier than previously believed, according to new research findings. Robert Siegel talks with Peter Lu, a physics graduate student at Harvard, who applied advanced material science microscopes and tools to ancient Chinese artifacts.
Lu says the finding rewrites ancient Chinese history "from a technological standpoint."
"Somehow, in the Stone Age… they were able to sort particles that were less than a millionth of a meter across," he says.
Lu's findings were published in the journal Archaeometry.
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