Contrary to earlier assumptions, the fibres spontaneously forming in aqueous colloids of detonation-produced nanodiamond (ND), do not consist purely of ND particles but are agglomerates of the latter with water and/or soft matter of biological (probably fungal) origin, as shown by elemental analysis, IR and Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical refractometry, optical and electron (TEM and ESEM) microscopy, as well as biological staining tests. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.