Mexico // Current

For Mexico’s Wealthy, Expenses Include Guards

When José hops into his Ferrari, presses his Ferragamo loafer to the floor and fills the night air with a deep roar, his... more

Cuervo
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Mexico gives Viagra to men 70 and older

Mexico City is giving out free Viagra and other impotence drugs to men 70 and older. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the city is... more

Moopak
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Cavern of crystal giants

"Nothing compares with the giants found in Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals. The limestone cavern and its... more

Trypnotik
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slow port of entry

Less than 20 miles south of downtown San Diego lies the world's busiest port of entry - the international border crossing... more

daledrops
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Mexican plane was too close to jet

The Lear jet that crashed upon landing last week in Mexico City may have been doomed by the turbulence from a large passenger jet... more

nazbags
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Free Viagra for eldery men in Mexico

On December 1, Mexico City will begin giving free medication to elderly men with erectile dysfunction. The medications include... more

nazbags
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Mexicans in U.S. will stay home for the holidays

Every December for as long as Brenda Cardoso can remember, her family has spent Christmas together at her grandmother's house... more

JackHerer
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27 mexican farmworkers kidnapped by armed men

Police hunted Tuesday for 27 farmworkers who were kidnapped in northwestern Mexico by dozens of heavily armed men wearing... more

daledrops
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Deported in coma, saved back in US

"Soon after Antonio Torres, a husky 19-year-old farmworker, suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident last June, a... more

bedeboop
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Drug lords control Mexico.

Rolling stone reporter Guy Lawson goes to Sinaloa, MX to investigate the increasing violence of the drug war in Mexico.

Cuervo
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Police, public officials, women and children being killed by drug cartels

This is happening right next door to us. Little to no attention is being paid to the overwhelming loss of life that is happening... more

Cuervo
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Mexico captures top Gulf drug cartel hitman

While we typically look overseas for danger, things have been heating up south of the border for quite a long time. The Mexican... more

doithengiaorg
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Scientists turn tequila into diamonds

A team of Mexican scientists found that the heated vapor from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila blanco, when deposited on a silicon or stainless steel substrate, can form diamond films.

Originally, the scientists were experimenting with creating diamonds from organic solutions such as acetone, ethanol, and methanol. They found that diluting ethanol in water resulted in high quality diamond films. The scientists then noticed that the ideal compound of 40 percent ethanol and 60 percent water was similar to the proportion used in tequila.

"To dissipate any doubts, one morning on the way to the lab I bought a pocket-size bottle of cheap white tequila and we did some tests," Apátiga said. "We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, it turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds."

In their experiments, the scientists grew the diamond films using "pulsed liquid injection chemical vapor deposition techniques." In a specially made device, they heated the liquid tequila to 280 ºC (536 ºF) to transform it into a gas. In a reaction chamber, they heated the gas to 800 ºC (1470 ºF) to break down its molecular structure, resulting in solid diamond crystals of about 100-400 nm. The crystals fell onto silicon or stainless steel trays, accumulating in a thin, uniform film. The high temperatures removed all of the tequila´s carbon impurities to result in pure diamonds.

The final diamond film was hard and heat-resistant - properties that could make the diamond useful as coatings for cutting tools, high-power semiconductors, radiation detectors and optical-electronic devices, the scientists explained. They plan to begin industrial-scale applications around 2011, and hope to interest a tequila producer in widening its market beyond the traditional beverage.

For now, the scientists are continuing to test different tequilas´ abilities to produce diamonds. They´re also working on creating doped diamonds, which contain impurities, to serve as semiconductors. A team of Mexican scientists found that the heated vapor from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila blanco, when deposited on a silicon... more