ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC (www.home.cern)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The ALICE analysis shows that, during Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018), about 86 billion gold nuclei were created at the four major experiments. In terms of mass, this corresponds to just 29 picograms (2.9 ×10-11 g). [...] While the dream of medieval alchemists has technically come true, their hopes of riches have once again been dashed.

I mean, we still can't turn a ring of lead into a ring of gold, but this is really neat.

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[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Lead, thallium, mercury... metals not friendly to direct human contact. I find it rad that if we add a few more protons we get a pretty, shiny metal that won't melt our brains.*

*that we know of

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Humanity's history with gold would suggest that it is extremely capable of melting brains.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

True. There was that one annoying dude on GoT that experienced such.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Also we've basically made the dreams of alchemists a reality. Still in the proof of concept stage but it's now safe to say the idea of turning less valuable stuff into gold isn't as crazy as it initially sounds.

this post was submitted on 13 May 2025

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