"Remember, do not try anything you are about to see at home." "Ohh!" "NARRATOR:" "On this salivating episode of "Mythbusters"..." "Burn!" "NARRATOR:" "...Adam and Jamie regurgitate a "Seinfeld" classic." "I'm sorry." "NARRATOR:" "Is double dipping really germ warfare?" "[ Gagging ]" "Plus, they're falling over themselves..." "[ Ding ] ...finding out if a banana peel is a guaranteed slapstick wipeout." "I've never seen him like that." "NARRATOR:" "Meanwhile, Kari, Grant, and Tory have a blast..." "That was awesome!" "NARRATOR:... and cook up trouble as they tackle the myth of homemade diamonds." "I'm gonna be rich!" "NARRATOR:" "So prepare yourselves." "There's thrills..." "Aghh!" "NARRATOR:... spills... and the biggest explosion in "Mythbusters" history." "Who are the Mythbusters?" "Adam Savage..." "Oh, check out my new bulletproof vest, man!" "NARRATOR:" "...and Jamie Hyneman." "I usually don't let people do that." "NARRATOR:" "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "I'm not gonna get tired of that." "NARRATOR:" "Joining them Grant Imahara..." "You beauty!" "NARRATOR:..." "Tory Belleci..." "[ Glass shatters, alarm walls ]" "Ugh!" "NARRATOR:" "...and Kari Byron." "Bustin' out of here, see?" "NARRATOR:" "They don't just tell the myths." "They put them to the test." "Dare I ask why we're juggling bananas?" "It's because of one of the oldest gags in slapstick comedy that we're gonna test -- that every banana peel left on the ground equals someone walking up to it and slipping and falling flat on their keister." "The old slipping- on-a-banana-peel routine." "Exactly." "NARRATOR:" "According to the laws of comedy, a discarded banana peel is an unavoidable fall magnet." "But is the peel really a guaranteed guffaw, or is it a load of shtick?" "Such a lovely display." "Thank you." "Where do you think we should start?" "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I think we should peel one of these, put it out on the floor, try slipping on it." "No need to overcomplicate things." "Let's go." "All right." "[ Pbht!" "]" "NARRATOR:" "So, to find out if a banana peel can topple the Hyneman," "Jamie slips into something more comfortable, while Adam checks his insurance." "Yes." "No, one banana." "Only one -- I'm just gonna place one banana." "Yeah, he'll be blindfolded." "Well, it's just to see if he's gonna slip." "You know, if one banana equals one person slipping." "Yeah, exactly." "Okay." "I'll see you after it's done." "NARRATOR:" "That's the plan, and a blindfolded Jamie won't be able to see the peel, meaning gravity can take its hilarious revenge." "You're just gonna take a leisurely walk forward." "All right, stop." "NARRATOR:" "But unlike in the movies," "Jamie's not hitting his mark until finally... bingo." "You stepped right on it." "Nothing happened." "NARRATOR:" "And that's not quite the result the guys were expecting." "So, I could feel the banana peel when I finally stepped on it, but, you know, you feel something like that, you compensate for it." "At no time did I feel like I was gonna lose it and all of a sudden end up on my butt." "NARRATOR:" "The Hyneman may be stealthy enough to avoid one peel, but surely there's no escaping a fall now." "[ British accent ] This gauntlet of banana peels with their leathery tops and their slippery bottoms is a virtual lethal gauntlet of slipping and falling." "Le's see how the Hyneman does." "[ Normal voice ] Go for it." "NARRATOR:" "But gauntlet or no gauntlet," "Jamie remains unfazed." "I think what I need to do from here is actually move quickly enough that it doesn't matter whether I know it's coming or not." "If I slip, I'm gonna fall." "NARRATOR:" "And even at full speed, there's still no banana." "Good job." "Ohh!" "It's not looking good for this myth." "Can I take this off now?" "Yes, you can." "That's better." "Your mustache is all funky." "That's better." "Well, one banana, no slip." "10 bananas, little bit of slip." "Nothing spectacular, even when running." "So I think we need to do some testing, and find out just how slippery these things actually are when compared to other "slippery" things." "NARRATOR:" "And that means it's time to get scientific." "ADAM:" "There's two kinds of friction we want to look at here." "One is called static friction, and that's from a stop to a start." "There's a secondary one which is dynamic, or kinetic friction, which is how much resistance the banana peel has to moving, while it's moving." "And I'm gonna build some rigs to test both and compare banana peels to some other slippery things." "NARRATOR:" "Let's get this straight." "When you slip on a peel, there are two types of friction in play." "First is the static friction, which the banana peel must overcome to start moving." "And then, once in motion, kinetic friction is the peel's resistance to sliding." "And first, to test static friction," "Adam's whipped up just the thing." "Let's start with this shoe and 4 pounds of weight in it, and see what its static-friction angle is." "Okay." "10." "20." "45." "ADAM:" "45 degrees for the shoe." "NARRATOR:" "That's the control." "And with a banana peel?" "JAMIE: 10." "15." "There it is." "Yep, 15 degrees." "NARRATOR:" "So the peel cuts the static friction by a factor of three." "What's slicker than a banana peel?" "Well, I happen to have some animal birthing agent laying around." "[ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "By comparing them with this super-slick lube, the boys can work out where the banana peels sit on the, uh, slipperiness scale." "ADAM:" "Okay." "JAMIE: 5, 10... 15... .. .20." "I was gonna stop it, but I didn't want to touch it." "NARRATOR:" "The physics of this slapstick myth are looking good." "Surprisingly, the static friction of the banana peel is lower than the lube." "However, there's one more thing to test, and that's the kinetic friction." "This is a device for measuring just that -- the amount of force it takes to pull it once you've overcome the static friction." "NARRATOR:" "Once again, the shoe is their baseline." "Jamie gives it a, uh, nudge to get it moving." "I'd call it about 14 pounds." "That looks about right to me." "NARRATOR:" "But with the banana peel, that number halves." "7 pounds." "[ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "Finally, it's the slippery lube." "ADAM:" "That is nasty." "And... go." "ADAM:" "Go for it." "That was consistently 5 across the whole thing." "NARRATOR:" "So that takes care of the data." "But what does it all mean?" "ADAM:" "The banana peel is not the slipperiest thing we could find." "We found some lubricant that's actually slipperier, but the banana peel did respectably." "However, I don't feel like we can call this one until we can test it full size, of course." "JAMIE:" "Where do we go from here?" "Well, you know, it's funny." "With all the testing we've done so far, we still have yet to see anyone slip." "What you're saying is, somebody need to fall on their ass." "Absolutely." "But we're gonna need some more bananas." "Lots more bananas." "Yeah." "[ Chuckles ]" "What's up with the bling?" "[ Slurred ] We just robbed a jewelry store!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "No, just kidding." "It's for our next myth." "Okay, why?" "[ Normal voice ] Because we're trying to find out if you can make diamonds." "Aren't there companies that already do that?" "Yeah, but they're like million-dollar machines." "We're gonna do this different." "We want to see if you can make diamonds on your own, in the comfort of your own home." "Okay, so homemade diamonds." "Oh, yeah." "There's all these schemes on the Internet where you can make 'em in your own kitchen, you don't need any of these fancy machines." "And in the end, you get diamonds." "Yeah, we have three different techniques." "One is using peanut butter and a microwave, another one is using molten iron, and then finally we got one from the TV show "CSI,"" "and you use nothing but graphite and a pressure cooker." "Okay, let's put 'em to the test." "You know, if this works, in the end, we could be millionaires." "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "NARRATOR:" "The traditional way of getting your hands on a diamond used to be either mining or marriage." "[ Woman sighs, smooching ]" "But modern science has brought us synthetic diamonds, created in labs using multimillion-dollar technology." "However, according to this myth, you can make your own precious gems, all from the comfort of your own home." "Okay, well, there are three recipes, so why don't we each take a technique and have a little competition?" "Okay, well, in that case, let's make it winner takes all." "Whoever makes the most diamonds with the greatest value keeps everything." "I like a good competition." "I'm gonna put my hand up for peanut butter." "All right, well, I'll investigate the "CSI" method." "Well, I guess that leaves me with the iron and graphite." "But watch out, 'cause I'm gonna blow you away with my bling." "Oh, yeah?" "Well, I guess the proof is in the pudding." "NARRATOR:" "Tory's come over all "CSI,"" "which is apt, given that this myth will have murder..." "KARI:" "Dead." "Burn!" "NARRATOR:" "...double dealing plenty of shocks..." "Uhh!" "NARRATOR:... and the mother of all climaxes." ""CSI:" "Miami" makes it look so easy." "According to the crime lab, all you need is pure graphite, a ceramic box, some mysterious chemicals, and a pressure cooker." "Then, after three days, hey, presto." "But is this technique..." "It's like nature, only a million times faster." "NARRATOR:" "...or is it like science, only a million times fabricated?" "For an expert opinion, Tory heads to U.C. Berkeley to see Dr. Michael Franklock." "So, if I was gonna do this, what kind of chemicals do you think I should use?" "Metals like nickel, cobalt, and iron, so I would advise you to start from one of those, and it should be salt in its active form." "You still need to add some initial seeds, initial -- some small diamonds." "So you need a little piece of diamond to start the diamond?" "If you already start with a little seed, even of poor quality, it can grow and get bigger." "NARRATOR:" "Dr. Franklock's advice has given Tory the competitive edge, and while he's off to gather his "CSI" supplies..." "TORY:" "That is the pressure pot." "NARRATOR:" "...Kari weighs in with a recipe that puts the nuts into peanut butter." "KARI:" "To turn ordinary peanut butter into diamonds, there's a very simple recipe all over the Internet." "You take two charcoal briquettes, you cover them with 4 ounces of peanut butter, put them in a microwave-safe dish, and then you microwave them for 60 minutes in 1 0-minute increments." "NARRATOR:" "Sounds crazy, but according to these Internet hipsters..." "You want to take about 4 ounces of peanut butter." "NARRATOR:" "...all that stands between you and millions of dollars is a microwave." "Still, unsurprisingly, after just five minutes on high, things go up in smoke." "KARI:" "Looks like I'll be getting some more glassware and trying this again, because I want my diamonds!" "NARRATOR:" "Eventually, three attempts, three dishes, and two microwaves later," "Kari has her alleged diamonds in the rough." "KARI:" "I don't think I see any diamonds yet." "But we have one more process to go." "NARRATOR:" "And that process is to burn off the excess carbon." "KARI:" "When they say diamonds are forever, they mean they take forever to create." "NARRATOR:" "Well, patience is a virtue, but does it pay?" "Maybe the diamonds are microscopic, but they're supposed to be the size of fennel seeds." "I'm not seeing them so far." "I am seeing a lot of burnt peanut butter." "NARRATOR:" "Still, Kari's not out of the contest yet." "She can't tell the diamonds from the dirt, but maybe an expert can." "MAN: [ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "Everyone knows monkeys go ape for bananas." "They're a delicious treat for primates and people alike." "But in slapstick comedy, the banana serves a more sinister purpose." "But while you can lead a Hyneman to a banana skin, you can't make him fall." "So now the boys are upping the ante on this banana-peel myth." "We expect that we're gonna be falling down a lot." "So with that in mind, we're building a special floor so we don't hurt ourselves." "And this is what it's made of." "ADAM:" "These springy tires are layer one of our sprung floor." "All this wood right here is layer two." "And this linoleum here -- This is layer three." "NARRATOR:" "The boys have busted their gut, and now they have the perfect venue for busting their butt." "This may look like a completed sprung floor, but, in fact, it's missing one element, which is banana peels." "Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of banana peels." "We're gonna lay them out here like an obstacle course of comedy death, and then we're gonna run a little like this." "Goal!" "NARRATOR:" "That's right." "They're throwing this banana-peel myth one last lifeline, with the ultimate test." "We've got a truckload full of bananas, and we have our rink set up." "Only thing now is that we need to peel all these bananas, so we either need a whole lot of monkeys or some volunteers." "NARRATOR:" "Well, the monkeys had a prior engagement, so the guys settle for the volunteers." "I'm gonna place eight of these cones on the rink, each one with a raw egg on top." "Our task will be to gather up all eight raw eggs running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth as fast as we can without -- I can't break this egg!" "[ Laughs ]" "And when we're all done, we ring the bell, and that stops the timer." "NARRATOR:" "With the rink now full Jamie's keister is well padded, as this test should give the peels the best chance to redeem their slapstick reputation." "But if he doesn't fall on his butt, then this myth is busted." "Okay, banana-peel speed test." "Are you ready?" "[ Ding ]" "[ Laughs ] 5 seconds!" "10 seconds." "15 seconds." "He's not falling down." "NARRATOR:" "He's done it again." "Jamie's gravity-defying powers are spooky." "[ Ding ]" "ADAM:" "40 seconds!" "Nicely done." "Of course this test isn't about Adam and I racing." "It's about how slippery banana peels are." "And they are." "I had to be really, really careful not to slide, and even then, I slid quite a bit." "NARRATOR:" "But that caution invalidated Jamie's test, because according to the laws of comedy, he shouldn't be expecting to fall." "So for a repeat performance, he takes off the brakes." "JAMIE:" "Okay, Jamie on turbo." "[ Ding ]" "NARRATOR:" "At long last, the banana peels take their revenge..." "And although he valiantly attempts to recover..." "[ Laughs ]" "Go, go, go!" "29 seconds!" "You can still beat your time!" "JAMIE: [ Laughs ]" "ADAM: 37." "NARRATOR:... he just can't overcome the giggles." "I've never seen him like that." "NARRATOR:" "And with no complete data, it's all down to Adam." "ADAM:" "Okay, this is Adam's banana-peel speed test in 3, 2, 1..." "NARRATOR:" "And the results..." "ADAM:" "Whoa!" "[ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "...speak for themselves." "ADAM:" "Whoa." "Whoa." "[ Laughs ]" "Oh!" "[ Crash!" "]" "[ Laughs ] Hurry up!" "[ Ding ] 52.2 seconds." "That was so much fun!" "NARRATOR:" "That's six falls in less than a minute, which means that this myth is back in plausible territory." "The real question is, how do they compare against, like, the ultimate slipperiness?" "And that's pretty much what the next test is all about." "NARRATOR:" "Planet Earth is a violent place, and, deep below ground, it gets worse." "Here, immense heat and pressure transform carbon into a girl's best friend." "But perhaps that's not the only way to make diamonds." "Well, the Mythbusters are competing to find out." "Kari's chances appear slim." "I don't think I see any diamonds yet." "NARRATOR:" "But Tory's done his research, and he now has a solid lead on that annoyingly vague "CSI" recipe." "Now, I have everything I need to start making diamonds." "First, I have my pressure cooker." "I have my ingredients." "I have my hunk of graphite." "The chemical that I'm gonna use is ferric nitrate." "What I'm gonna do is stick this and that in this," "put it in that." "NARRATOR:" "And that's as specific as it gets." "But let's not forget the most important ingredient -- a diamond seed." "Without it, this recipe has no chance of working." "For, uh, safety, Tory rigs a stun gun..." "It's been a while since we used one of these, and I kind of forget what it feels like." "[ Buzzes ]" "Aghh!" "NARRATOR:... and lights the gas from outside the bunker." "TORY:" "I'll leave it there for three days, and then at the end of that, check and see if I've made any diamonds." "NARRATOR:" "And while Tory waits," "Grant's off to the blacksmith for his shot at diamonds." "So, to execute this diamond recipe, we need to melt iron, and to do that, you need a foundry." "We don't have a foundry at Mythbusters, but we've come to a place that does have a foundry, the Crucible." "NARRATOR:" "Supposedly this recipe replicates the heat and pressure that make natural diamonds." "All you need to do is melt graphite into molten iron and quench the mixture." "Then just dissolve the iron in acid, and voilà!" "Your very own sparkling gemstones." "So to get this recipe fired up," "Grant enlists master smelter, Nick DiPhillipo." "GRANT:" "All right." "Here you go." "Thank you." "NARRATOR:" "The graphite and iron go into the furnace, to be heated to 2,500 degrees." "Burn!" "Burn!" "Make me diamonds!" "[ Laughs evilly ]" "NARRATOR:" "And at that heat," "Grant's stretching the rules of the homemade-diamonds contest just a touch." "But after 20 minutes, it's the moment of truth." "So, this is it." "Now the pour, right?" "Yep, here we go." "There's the iron." "NARRATOR:" "As the iron hits the water, the contraction of the metal should apparently be forming diamonds." "And after waiting for the iron to cool, it's time to harvest the spoils." "I'm rich!" "I'm gonna be rich!" "Finally this gig's really paying off." "NARRATOR:" "Okay, Grant could be onto a winner, so, booty in tow, he heads home to iron out the details." "The idea is that at this point, your diamonds have already been made." "It's just that they're encased in this iron, and you have to get the iron off in order to get the diamonds." "NARRATOR:" "And Grant's not just outside for the view." "The iron stripper is super-concentrated hydrochloric acid." "But first impressions are a little disappointing." "There's bubbles aplenty, but not a glimmer of glitz." "Right now, it looks like a roiling soup of butternut squash, but not quite that appetizing." "There's got to be a fortune in there somewhere." "NARRATOR:" "Well, Grant, anything's possible." "So, I've let my iron dissolve overnight in the acid, and now it's time to harvest my diamonds." "NARRATOR:" "Grant neutralizes the acid, but the results are low on sparkle." "I think what we're gonna have to do is take this somewhere where they can see if there's a diamond hidden somewhere in the rough." "NARRATOR:" "If they're in there, they're hidden well." "The Mythbusters are tackling the slapstick favorite -- slipping on a banana peel." "ADAM: 37." "Come on!" "NARRATOR:" "And while the skins certainly are slippery, the fun ain't over yet." "Whoa!" "We wanted to compare the slipperiness of bananas to something that was ultimately slippery, and we went looking, and we found this lubricant." "It's used to help animals give birth." "We're gonna spread it out on this field, and hilarity will ensue." "NARRATOR:" "By comparing the peels to the ultraslick lube, the guys can find out just how slippery a banana peel really is." "Okay, commencing the slime." "NARRATOR:" "After a quick squirt, the rink is ready for testing, and by now, well, you know the drill." "JAMIE:" "Superduper lube, starting." "Come on, now" "And scream" "NARRATOR:" "And it's a hop, a skid, and a thud till the lube takes Jamie out." "ADAM: [ Laughs ]" "Come on, get up, get up, get up!" "37 seconds!" "Oh!" "[ Boing!" "]" "ADAM: [ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "That's only two falls for Jamie, but since he didn't finish bananas, it's down to Adam for the final test." "Be careful, little buddy." "Okay." "In 3, 2, 1..." "[ Ding ]" "Whoa!" "Cheese and crow!" "It's like ice skating!" "Whoa!" "[ Both laugh ]" "I have almost no control." "JAMIE:" "22 seconds." "[Bleep] [ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "That's fall number one, and I think the tally should take it from here." "Oh!" "Ooh!" "[ Boing!" "]" "[ Ding ]" "What was my time?" "1 minute, 20 seconds." "That was no faking, man." "It gets worse the farther you go." "[ Laughs ]" "NARRATOR:" "Clearly, with two more tumbles and an extra 30 seconds on the clock, falling down with the lube was practically compulsory." "If I had to give it a rating, I'd call our birthing agent a 9." "I could conceive of something more slippery, like a field of roller skates, but within that, I'd say that bananas were easily a 6." "So, how do you want to call this one?" "Well, what exactly was the myth we started out with?" "Okay, according to the laws of comedy, the myth is that one banana peel plus one person equals one person on their butt." "Well, then we'd have to call it busted, because a banana peel was definitely not a guarantee that you were gonna fall." "But I do have to say that with their leathery top and that permanently lubricated underside, they're perfect for slipping on." "I'd say this is busted, but only just." "Agreed." "NARRATOR:" "The "Banana-Peel Flip" may be busted, but the guys are taking a bite out of something else." "I've got a good one." "Yeah, what's that?" "Double dipping." "Oh, that you can't dip, bite, and dip in a second time" "like in "Seinfeld."" "Exactly." "The myth's been around for a lot longer than that, but "Seinfeld" popularized it." "If I remember correctly, when George is accused of double dipping, the guy tells him that dipping, biting, and dipping again is akin to putting his whole mouth in the bowl of dip." "NARRATOR:" "It's a classic "Seinfeld" moment that the fans have begged us to test." "An unwitting George" "finds himself..." "What are you doing?" "NARRATOR:... breaking dip-dunking etiquette." "What?" "Did " " Did you just double dip that chip?" "Excuse me?" "You double dipped the chip!" "NARRATOR:" "By dipping the chip twice, supposedly..." "That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!" "NARRATOR:" "Is this bacterial baloney, or is there something to this "Seinfeld" saga?" "Just take one dip and end it!" "NARRATOR:" "The theory is that double dipping transfers microbes from your mouth into the dip and then on to other people." "But can the germs inside your mouth really hitch a ride on your chip of choice?" "So, what's your plan on this one?" "Well, we've got some chips, we've got some dip, and I think it's time to bring back our old friends, the petri dishes." "So, we'll do a control." "we'll do double dipping." "Then we've got to put our whole mouths in the bowl." "We'll get separate bowls." "You want separate bowls?" "Yeah." "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "Separate bowls, it is." "And with a bunch of soy agar petri dishes primed for bacterial growth, it's time to double dip for science." "We've got two kinds of dip -- a cream-based dip, a salsa-based dip, and a bowlful of chips." "Let me tell you how we're gonna do this experiment." "First, before we touch anything, we're going to stick a swab in each of these kinds of dips and put them on an agar plate and try and culture them." "That's our control." "Then we're gonna double dip in these dips." "Dip, bite, dip again." "Once we've done that, we're gonna culture them again and see if we've added any bacteria." "But the story includes a third wrinkle, in which the guy says that double dipping is like putting your whole mouth into the bowl." "So we're gonna do that." "We're gonna take as much of the dip in our mouths as possible." "It's gonna be really gross." "we're gonna spit it back out, and we're gonna culture it one last time and see if that's equivalent to double dipping." "NARRATOR:" "And it really is that simple." "With each Mythbuster swabbing three experiments, they're ready to incubate." "ADAM:" "Perfect." "It's right around 98 degrees." "So we want it right about the same as the human body, huh?" "Yeah." "For roughly a day." "We'll come back tomorrow and check it out." "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "And thanks to the wonders of editing time's up for the breeding bacteria." "The biohazards are ready for their close-up." "But there's a problem." "That's the control." "And there's already bacteria in the salsa." "NARRATOR:" "They check all the salsa-only controls, and every one tells the same story." "Even with no human saliva, the dips are already brimming with bugs." "Clearly, we are going to need to do this test again and remove some variables." "NARRATOR:" "Yep, with the controls showing more bacterial growth than Adam's feet, the boys are going to need a plan "B"." "The Mythbusters are battling it out making homegrown diamonds, and, so far, their crusade is a little short on bling." "There's got to be a fortune in there somewhere." "NARRATOR:" "But Tory's not finished yet." "His "CSI" recipe was simple -- just graphite and chemicals inside a pressure cooker, and in three days, he'll have a rock." "So, was it a recipe for success?" "All right, so it's been three days, and now it's time to check my diamonds." "The real question is, what am I gonna do with all my money once I start my diamond company?" "NARRATOR:" "I wouldn't count your diamonds just yet, Tory." "Oh, my gosh!" "The graphite has not turned into a diamond." "Looks like my diamond business is not going so well." "NARRATOR:" "Which means there's no clear homegrown winner." "So, for an expert adjudication, the team heads to U.C. Berkeley to see Dr. Kent Ross and his electron microscope." "First up is Grant's iron and graphite." "Nothing that I'm seeing now has a shape that says this has to be a diamond." "NARRATOR:" "Grant's out of contention." "So next is Kari's peanut-butter dirt." "Charcoal." "You've got charcoal." "NARRATOR:" "Which leaves only Tory and his diamond seed." "DR. ROSS:" "The straight edges from the cut faces are still perfectly smooth." "It's just like it was when you started your experiment." "NARRATOR:" "There's been no growth whatsoever, and that's game over -- no diamonds, nobody wins." "But where does that leave the myth?" "So, we all tried making diamonds, and we all failed miserably." "Yeah, I think it's safe to say that all of these recipes are busted." "Totally busted." "But you know what?" "Our researchers have come up with someone who can make diamonds in a Mythbuster way." "Cool." "You guys remember Van Romero?" "From New Mexico Tech." "He says he can make synthetic diamonds, and he wants to show us how." "Awesome." "What are we waiting for?" "NARRATOR:" "So, for a proper chance at making some bona fide bling, the Mythbusters head to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to meet Dr. Van Romero." "Van, we heard you know how to make diamonds." "You've come to the right place." "Here at New Mexico Tech, we do applied research, and we do industrial research." "And part of that industrial research" "is actually making diamonds." "GRANT:" "All right, well... cut to the chase." "Tell us how to do it." "You know what, instead of telling you how, let's show you how to do it." "Even better." "Okay!" "Let's go do it." "NARRATOR:" "Step one of Van's mysterious method involves driving into the middle of nowhere." "Step two involves arriving at an almighty bunker." "And as for step three, well, Tory's one step ahead." "Considering we're standing outside of a bunker, my feeling is it probably involves explosives, which is never a bad thing." "NARRATOR:" "Tory's got it in one." "Van the Man reckons he can make bling with a boom." "And not just any boom, but the biggest boom in Mythbusters history." "NARRATOR:" "In "Blackpowder Shark"..." "KARI:... 1." "[ All screaming ]" "NARRATOR:" ".. .400 pounds of explosives turned Hugo into Hu-Gone." "In "22,000 Foot Fall"... .. .500 pounds made a train station turn torpedo." "And in "Cement Mix Up"... .. .800 pounds made a truck take flight." "But all will be eclipsed right here, right now." "Because at ground zero, 500 yards from the bunker," "Van's team are packing a 20-foot-high wooden tube with 5,000 pounds of high explosives." "But can a bang this big really create diamonds?" "Okay, you guys ready to make some diamonds?" "Yeah!" "MAN:" "Fire in the hole!" "NARRATOR:" "Strap yourself in." "This one's going to be gigantic." "Charging.. .5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero." "TORY:" "Oh!" "Ha ha!" "That was awesome!" "NARRATOR:" "With over 10 times the might of any other Mythbusters boom it sure was a blast." "But did it germinate any gemstones?" "The Mythbusters are getting all bacteriological, as they probe a "Seinfeld" double-dipping dilemma." "But thanks to masses of microbes, their first test was ruined." "So this time, the boys are taking precautions." "We need to do what we normally do, which is start eliminating variables, and then get back in there and do the test." "So, sterile salsa, sterile chips, clean space, rubber gloves, surgical masks." "The only variable being our saliva?" "Exactly." "Perfect." "Let's do it." "NARRATOR:" "So Adam starts with the chip sterilization, heading to NUTEK Corporation to have them irradiated." "Will these be safe to eat after that?" "Oh, sure." "They might taste a little funny." "But they'll be totally safe to eat." "Okay, great." "NARRATOR:" "Funny-tasting, and more importantly, sterile." "Friends and family of bacteria may want to look away now, because 2.5 million rads of radiation is about to be unleashed." "That is so much cooler than I thought it would be." "I mean, I can see this beam coming down, like an anvil crushing bacteria in its wake, electrons scattering little bacteriological lives to the winds." "NARRATOR:" "Uncharacteristically," "Adam is enjoying this far too much, and soon enough..." "There you have it." "One set of totally sterile chips." "NARRATOR:" "Meanwhile, back at the shop," "Jamie's also getting sterile for science." "He first builds a clean room for the test and then conjures up some decontaminated dip." "Two parts agar, one part sterilized water, and voilà." "JAMIE:" "Well, okay, then." "I think that kind of looks like as close to salsa as we're gonna get." "NARRATOR:" "To make sure the test runs smoothly, the boys have Dr. Russell Vance, an expert in pathogenesis." "He's the guy in the middle." "What's first?" "NARRATOR:" "That would be the salsa-only control." "Using much more sophisticated equipment than those earlier swabs," "Dr. Vance prepares the petri dishes." "What now?" "Now is double dipping, except this time with the fully irradiated chips." "Okay, here we go." "NARRATOR:" "Once the infamous double dip has been, uh, double dipped the salsa is sampled and plated up, leaving just the full-mouth test." "All right." "Now for the really gross one." "NARRATOR:" "And, once again, it's delightful... to watch." "ADAM:" "Ugh!" "It's almost worse watching you do it than doing it myself." "NARRATOR:" "That's experiment over." "Dr. Vance plates the full-mouth tests, and they join the double-dipped and control plates in the incubator." "DR. VANCE:" "Okay, they're in the incubator." "JAMIE:" "Thanks, Dr. Vance." "Now we wait." "NARRATOR:" "But not for long." "[ Ding ]" "So, for viewers playing at home, here's what to look for." "The stated myth is that double dipping is just as bad as putting your whole mouth in the bowl of dip, in terms of transmitting bacteria to it." "So if this is true, we would expect to see the same amount of bacteria on the double-dipping petri dish as we would on the whole-mouth-in-the-bowl petri dish." "Here we go." "This is my control." "It's clean." "ADAM:" "Here's your control." "JAMIE:" "It's clean." "Just what we expected to see." "That's a clean start, meaning Jamie's salsa was bacteria-free." "So, from here on in, any microbes can only be from their saliva." "Here is my double dipping." "JAMIE:" "Oh, maybe one." "NARRATOR:" "There's one bacterial colony." "And for Jamie..." "Oh, maybe three or four or so." "NARRATOR:" "But how does that compare with the whole-mouth results?" "Lots." "Tons!" "Check out yours." "JAMIE:" "Also lots." "About the same." "Well, I guess that tells the whole story, doesn't it?" "It tells the entire story that we set out to tell." "So, to all those germophobes out there, I say double dipping -- not such a big deal." "Plenty more bacteria in here than you are imparting by double dipping." "And, besides, what the heck's your immune system for anyway?" "NARRATOR:" "Indeed." "The Mythbusters' attempts at homemade diamonds failed miserably." "KARI:" "Dead!" "NARRATOR:" "So they hunkered in a bunker to test the tale that you can use explosives to bring forth some bling." "TORY:" "Oh!" "That was awesome!" "NARRATOR:" "The theory is that the pressure and heat at ground zero is so intense, it converts carbon to diamond in an instant." "So to delve deeper into that theory, it's back to the lab so the team can prep a more manageable diamond explosion of their own." "So, this is the device that we're gonna be using." "We're gonna have you guys pack the special sauce into the device here." "NARRATOR:" "This metal tube sits at the center of the blast." "And in the center of that is a mixture of graphite, cobalt, and other chemicals." "The cylinder is placed in the very center of a wooden barrel, which is then filled to the brim with ANFO." "TORY:" "Mmm, it smells good." "GRANT:" "Yeah." "TORY:" "It smells like diamonds!" "Now, I know they say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but let's face it." "If you're making diamonds with explosives," "I'm starting to warm up to them myself." "NARRATOR:" "It's a win-bling situation, so the team hunkers in the bunker once again." "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero." "NARRATOR:" "That blast may have been a wee bit smaller, but the effect should still be the same -- diamonds, apparently." "TORY:" "Whoa!" "GRANT:" "Dude." "That looks in much better shape than I thought it was gonna look." "DR. ROMERO:" "That's what we wanted." "Pressure and heat." "Yeah." "Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "Back at the shop, it's the moment of truth as the very myth gets dissected." "Tory's so confident, he's taking precautions against bling blindness." "Everybody's happy." "Ready to see our diamonds?" "Show me the money." "Perfect!" "That's great." "Excellent." "Good job." "Where's the diamond?" "Well, we've got to take it through a few chemical processes first." "NARRATOR:" "They might not look like much, but after a quick chemical bath to remove the excess cobalt and graphite, uh, they still don't look like much." "But these are definitely diamonds." "Gemstones, no." "Diamonds, yes." "So how much are these diamonds worth?" "About a quarter." "TORY:" "Quarter of a million?" "No. 25 cents." "Oh, that was money well spent." "I'm going back to getting diamonds the old-fashioned way." "NARRATOR:" "The blast may have mimicked the pressure and heat of the earth's core." "But even with all that explosive energy, the end result is still only cheap and cheerful industrial diamonds." "We made diamonds in a completely spectacular, totally impossible-to-do-at-home way, but still, all that heat and pressure " "We didn't get gemstones." "Yeah, we made little diamonds." "The kind that you use in industry." "The kinds that you put on a drill bit or a saw blade." "Stuff like that." "So the idea of homemade gemstones -- totally and completely busted." "And like virtually all get-rich-quick schemes, this one's bogus." "Don't you guys want to see that 5,000-pound explosion again?" "Absolutely." "Yeah!" "NARRATOR:" "While the team may not have made their fortune with diamond gems they did make Mythbusters history."