this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC (www.home.cern)
submitted 1 month ago by NONE_dc@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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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[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] villainy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

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

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 2 points 1 month 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.

[–] Misseuse@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wake up babe the latest philosophers ~~stone~~ LHC just dropped

[–] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

And this time you don't need to sacrifice hundreds of prisoners to make it work! (As far as I know).

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Idk everything is pretty crazy right now. I think some equivalent exchange happens every time you turn that thing on.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

Watch crypto miners will be trying to build LHCs in their yard with asinine electricity costs to make a few micrograms of gold.