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5 Designers on Their Lives in Jewelry

When The Times recently invited five independent jewelry designers for a morning of conversation, they all arrived wearing their own creations. “We are our brands,” as Bernard James, one of the jewelers, put it. “We represent what we make.” The designer, 32, wore, among other pieces, rings from his namesake brand’s Flora collection, inspired by…

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Zircons Are Not the Gem You Probably Think They Are

What’s in a name? If you could ask the humble zircon, the answer might be mistaken identity and decades of undeserved obscurity. In the Victorian era, the peak of popularity for zircons, a mined mineral, colorless ones were regularly used as diamond alternatives and blue ones were particularly popular. “Zircon can come in a wide…

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Diamonds Help to Create Million Dollar Smiles

Dr. Thomas Connelly has turned the cliché “million dollar smile” into reality. In 2021, the “Father of Diamond Dentistry” — as Rolling Stone named him — reconstructed Post Malone’s smile with 18 porcelain veneers, eight platinum crowns and two six-carat diamonds replacing the singer-songwriter’s upper canines. Just diamonds. The total cost: $1.6 million. “Posty needed…

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First Bird Flu Deaths Reported In Antarctic Penguins

Why It Matters: Penguins are already under pressure. The familiar black-and-white birds are facing numerous threats, including climate change, pollution and commercial fishing. Three Antarctic penguin species — emperor penguins, southern rockhopper penguins and macaroni penguins — are listed as vulnerable or near threatened. Before H5N1 arrived in the Antarctic region last fall, highly pathogenic…

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