Lab-Made Gold: The Fascinating Truth Behind Its Creation and One Big Challenge

Alchemists, rejoice! You can technically create gold in a lab, but it’s not as simple as mixing ingredients in a cauldron. To turn other elements into gold, you need advanced technology like a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator.

Did you know most of Earth’s gold originated from outer space? Massive stars explode in supernovae, forming heavy metals like gold. This cosmic gold got mixed into our planet during its formation and eventually surfaced, sparkling for us to find.

Today, scientists can mimic this process. They can produce gold from other elements, but it’s not practical. You’d need an enormous amount of energy, making it an expensive venture. In theory, if you remove or add protons to gold’s nucleus—gold has 79 protons—you might get platinum or mercury. But altering gold’s stable atomic structure is tricky.

One way scientists achieve this is through nuclear reactions. For instance, a study from 1941 shows that bombarding mercury with neutrons can kick out a proton, creating gold—albeit a radioactive version. Similarly, platinum can be transformed into gold by adding a proton through nuclear reactions.

At CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created gold by smashing lead nuclei together. This high-energy collision creates a quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter thought to exist just after the Big Bang. From these energetic interactions, scientists can generate fleeting amounts of gold.

However, all these methods are incredibly costly. For example, Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg turned bismuth into gold in the 1980s by bombarding it with carbon nuclei. He noted that it would cost more than a quadrillion dollars per ounce to produce gold this way.

So, while creating gold in a lab is fascinating and possible, it’s far from a profitable endeavor. The science behind it not only showcases incredible advancements but also reminds us that some treasures are best left in nature.

For more information, check out the detailed studies on the topic like the research from the American Physical Society here.

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