Wearing Your Dead Relatives: "The creation of artificial diamonds is by now a well established process. It has been around since the 1950’s, but until quite recently the production of sizeable gem-quality diamonds was prohibitively expensive. As of 2003, however, improvements in the process and new technologies have lowered costs so much that at least two US companies have started making artificial diamonds for the jewelry trade.
Or at least there were two. Since there is cheap available technology for making artificial diamonds, there would not seem to be much room in the field for an exclusive hold on the market. However, one company, LifeGem, has come up with a different way to corner a clientele. Wait until they die.

LifeGem holds a patent on a process for extracting carbon from cremated remains. Human or pet, they take a few ounces of ashes, process it into graphite, and then using a high-pressure system, turn the graphite... (More Inside)"

(Via Damn Interesting.)