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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Accidentally Turned Lead Into Gold
The mad geniuses over at CERN have accomplished what alchemists of yore never could: they turned lead into gold. As detailed in a paper published last week in the journal Physical Review C, researchers working with the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) atom-annihilating Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accidentally transformed humble lead into temporary gold nuclei. The researchers are part of CERN's A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) project, which, put simply, involves scientists smashing atomic particles together at close to the speed of light in an attempt to replicate the conditions that followed the Big Bang. The discovery, they say, is an incidental outcome of their experimentation with collisions between lead nuclei, which contain three more protons than gold. Sometimes, as the paper explains, rather than hit each other directly, the ions graze past each other. And when that happens, the combined power of the ions' electromagnetic fields causes lead nuclei to release three of their protons in a process known as electromagnetic dissociation, effectively transmuting a lead nucleus into one of noble gold. Before anyone gets too excited: CERN scientists aren't about to unleash the hand of Midas. As Nature reported, the researchers estimate that LHC collisions conducted between 2015 and 2018 resulted in 86 billion accidental gold nuclei. While that may sound like a lot of gold, it isn't — it only comes out to around 29 trillionths of a gram, which is worth next to nothing. The nuclei were also short-lived and likely only lasted for a microsecond or so. This would also be a wildly inefficient way to try and create gold from lead at scale, as The Register pointed out, given how much time, energy, and money go into powering the LHC. Regardless, researchers are chalking this up as a fascinating scientific finding that could pave the way for future experimentation. "Understanding such processes is crucial for controlling beam quality and stability," Stony Brook University physicist Jiangyong Jia, who has worked at the LHC, told Nature. While the gold flakes may be temporary, it's a stunning result nonetheless. "The transmutation of lead into gold is the dream of medieval alchemists," reads the paper, "which comes true at the LHC." More on the Large Hadron Collider: Something Wild Just Happened at the CERN Particle Accelerator
News18
12-05-2025
- Science
- News18
Scientists Have Created Gold From Lead In The CERN Large Hadron Collider
Last Updated: In the LHC, the world's largest collider, scientists accelerated lead nuclei to 99.999993% the speed of light, sending them hurtling through vacuum-sealed tunnels In a scene that feels torn from the pages of medieval alchemy, the world's most advanced physics laboratory has managed to achieve what mystics once only dreamed of – transforming one element into another, specifically, lead into gold. But this modern-day transmutation was not the result of ancient spells or bubbling cauldrons. It happened inside the 27-kilometre ring of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, on the outskirts of Geneva, during a series of high-energy experiments conducted between 2015 and 2018. According to a recently published paper in Physical Review C, scientists during this period succeeded in producing an estimated 86 billion gold nuclei, albeit for a fleeting instant. That's roughly 29 picograms of gold – a trillionth of a gram – far too small to mint a coin or even to see, but a dazzling scientific feat nonetheless. The process reads like a sci-fi interpretation of the periodic table. Lead and gold are neighbours on the elemental chart, with gold containing 79 protons and lead 82. Theoretically, by knocking a few protons and neutrons off a lead atom, you could arrive at gold. However, this transformation requires titanic forces that no ancient alchemist could dream of. Enter the LHC, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. There, scientists accelerated lead nuclei to 99.999993% the speed of light, sending them hurtling through vacuum-sealed tunnels. When two such nuclei passed close to one another, their immense electromagnetic fields clashed, generating an intense burst of photons. These photon pulses were powerful enough to destabilise the nuclei, ejecting protons and neutrons in a process known as photodisintegration. In this atomic mayhem, some of the remaining particles briefly reassembled into gold nuclei – exquisitely short-lived and impossibly rare. Most were destroyed within moments as they collided with the LHC's walls, but their formation was detected thanks to the highly sensitive Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDC) in the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector. The ZDC measured the emission of nuclear fragments and converted this invisible alchemy into quantifiable data. And gold wasn't the only element born in the chaos. The collisions also produced mercury (80 protons) and thallium (81 protons) – elements just shy of lead on the periodic table. While these were more abundant than gold in the LHC experiments, it is gold's symbolic and scientific significance that captured imaginations. This achievement may not herald a new age of gold mining in laboratories – the amount created is cosmically small and extraordinarily expensive. But it provides valuable insights into the nuclear processes that occur in extreme environments, such as supernovae or neutron star collisions, where nature might perform similar transmutations on a far grander scale. Watch India Pakistan Breaking News on CNN-News18. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published:
