"Potatoes." One needs differentiate among real variables, decimal trim, and fluff. Basic research is always interesting. Knowledge builds, interacts, and blooms further. To claim fashionable relevance is corruption.
Diamonds are found in what were upwelling mantle explosions from deep crustal rifts. Your average diamond is a billion years old or more. The diamond stability zone is a mere 80-100 miles under your brogans.
Given an extra billion years, what is the average in situ diamond size today? Bowling balls? We could study, model, and pontificate over accretion and erosion. Given that technology cannot begin to imagine reaching 100 miles down... what difference does it make? Cornell University abuts a large kimberlite dike. This is interesting for the (paleo)geology but not for university finances - it's not diamondiferous.
