Science Article

Have you seen the James Bond film "Die Another Day" with its amazing special effects, stunning stunts and futuristic technology? For example, the cloaked car—is that possible?

In fact much of the out-of-this-world technology shown in James Bond films is based on real science. Some of the technology has already been developed, and other ideas are being worked-on by scientists right now. Of course some are pure fantasy.

Beth Nicholson

Do you recall the ice palace owned by Gustav Graves - the one where he held the big party and James had the car chase near the end of the film? Well, the idea was based on the Ice Hotel, which is built every winter from thousands of tons of ice and snow in Lapland, Sweden. People can stay in rooms with temperatures of -4 to -9 degrees centigrade. To be able to survive the night, the hotel provides you with special sleeping bags designed for the freezing temperatures and they check-up on you with a hot drink every morning.

So what other parts of the film do you think are true and which are fantasy? As I am interested in diamonds and have worked with them for many years in research and industry, I decided to investigate the part of the film when James comes across a quantity of Gem diamonds. Gem diamonds are very valuable because, not only are they rare and beautiful, but they are also the hardest material on earth and have many other amazing properties too.