"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one."

A.J. Liebling

• A Brief History of Heat Heat Treatment of Ruby & Sapphire

• Banned! Burmese gems in the crossfire by Richard W. Hughes and Brian Leber. The case for sanctions against Burma seems to be obvious. But the reality may be less so. In this pair of articles, the case both for and against sanctions is examined.

• Brilliance, Windows & Extinction in Gemstones Important cutting phenomena examined

• Burma's Jade Mines: An Annotated Occidental History

• Burmese Jade: The Inscrutable Gem

  • Part 1: Burma's Jade Mines A groundbreaking article on the second-most valuable gem in the world – Burmese jade. By Richard Hughes, Olivier Galibert, George Bosshart, Fred Ward, Thet Oo, Mark Smith, Tay Thye Sun and George Harlow. Fully illustrated.

  • Part 2 – The cutting, grading, trading and faking of Burmese jadeite is detailed. Fully illustrated.

• Burmese Sapphire Giants includes interview with Mogok gem dealer U Thu Daw

• Catfights Enhancement Codes & Trade Wars

• Cloak and Dagger The Politics of Opticon

• Conspiracy Theory: Gems & Junkies in Burma

• Cry Freetown A poem by Todd A. Pownell

• Crystal Optics by Richard W. Hughes. A brief look at the optical properties of materials

• The Crying Game Diamond Color Grading

• Fluxed Up More on flux healing of ruby

• Foreign Affairs Fracture Healing / Filling of Möng Hsu Ruby

• From Russia with Jade A journey to Russia's jade mines

• Heat Seeker: UV Fluorescence as a Gemological Tool UV fluorescence for identification of heat treatment in ruby & sapphire

• Heaven & Hell The Quest for Jade in Upper Burma

• The Kimberley Process: Appeasement comes to the diamond trade

• Love and Hate Max Green's stolen millions and the Lao sapphire mines

• Moon over the Pamirs The search for Marco Polo's lost mines

• The Name Game Conventions for selecting the names of precious stones

• Passion Fruit A Lover's Guide to Sapphire

• Pigeon's Blood A Pilgrimage to Mogok – Valley of Rubies. Illustrated.

• Rubies and Spinels of Afghanistan A Brief History

• Seeing Red A Connoisseur's Guide to Ruby. Richard Hughes casts a discerning glance at the qualities that make ruby the most sexual of all gems.

• The Skin Game When something appears to be too good to be true, it usually is. And that is precisely the case with the orange sapphires that have been pouring out of Thai burners' ovens over the past few months…

• Sorcerers and Sapphires: A Visit to Madagascar by Richard W. Hughes. Join the author as he pays a visit to the ruby and sapphire deposits of the lost island of Madagascar.

• Spinel Compounds Background & Historical Perspective

• Thailand's Jewelry Industry A 'Black Paper' on the State of the Trade

• There's a Rumble in the Jungle More on surface-diffusion treated sapphires.

• Tracing the Green Line A Journey to Burma's Jade Mines

• Trust by John L. Emmett. A brief essay on treatment disclosure.

• Uncle Ho's Rubies Vietnam's Quy Chau Ruby Mines

• Weapons of Mass Donation by Randolph E. Post. Of politics and pearls in Burma.

• Where the Twain Do Meet Thailand's Gem-Trading Border Towns

Devil's Advocate/ Digital Devil

Selections from the archives of
Richard W. Hughes' notorious column…

• Big Time: Are these huge ruby and sapphire crystals worth anything? Read all about 'em.

• Blood From A Stone: Finally the truth about blood diamonds.

• C3: I See Thru U: The devil dismantles synthetic moissanite and the threat to the diamond trade.

• Carbon Copies: The devil dissects the new GE/LKI diamond treatment. With reader commentary.

• Crying Uncle: An homage to Bangkok corundum burner Gerald Rogers

• Death of the Thai Ruby: Mourning the passing of Thailand's ruby mines

• Dogfights: Dealers vs. Gemologists

• Don't Forget to Flush: Surprising news on emerald enhancements

• Fun Down Under: Opals, Diamonds
  and R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

• Have I Got An Idea For U: General Electric has ideas on diamonds… Richard Hughes has ideas on GE…

• Heat Wave: The heat and Burmese rubies.

• Life During Wartime: Death of the Thai Ruby, part 2

• Internet Hell: Precious stones and privacy in the Digital Age

• The Naked Eye: A Diamond's Worst Friend

• Romancing the Stone: Richard Hughes puts the love back in selling rubies

• Thailand After the Fall: An economic tiger topples

• Tricky Dick's Guide to Web Designer Netiquette

• Vampire Blues: Surface-diffusion treated sapphires

Passion Fruit A Lover's Guide to Sapphire. Richard Hughes dissects the qualities that make up a fine sapphire.

Big Time: Are these huge ruby and sapphire crystals worth anything? Read all about 'em.

Cry Freetown: A poem by Todd A. Pownell.

From Russia with Jade. A journey to Russia's jade mines. By Richard Hughes, with Nickolai Kouznetsov.

Blood From A Stone. What's up with these so-called "blood diamonds?" Richard Hughes puts them under the Devil's microscope.

Have I Got An Idea For U. National Enquirer comes to the diamond business? Read all about the attempt to peddle GE/POL diamonds at prices higher than the natural gems.

C3: I See Thru U. Does synthetic moissanite scare the bejesus out of you?

Fun Down Under. What do Henry David Thoreau and Australian opal miner Lenny Cram have in common? Find out here.