They made lead gold

Scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have achieved a real scientific performance: the transformation of lead into gold. The transformation was carried out in the experiments carried out with the help of the great Hadroni accelerator (Large Hadron Collider-LHC), one of the most powerful scientific tools in the world, informs the site Zdnet.fr on Friday.

The results of the experiment were published last week in an article published in the Physical Review Journals magazine.

The initial purpose of the project was to make subatomic particles collide with each other at speeds close to the speed of light. The idea was to recreate the conditions that existed in the universe immediately after the Big Bang. In this context, the researchers caused collisions between lead nuclei inside the LHC.

An unexpected discovery

Through a happy coincidence, those clashes led to an unexpected result: the transformation of lead into gold. The lead really has three protons more than gold. This difference has played a key role in the process.

‘The transformation of lead into gold was the dream of medieval alchemists. This dream was made at the LHC ‘, scientists from CERN wrote in their article.

During LHC experiments, the beam ions do not always collide in front. Sometimes they simply rub each other. In these particular cases, a powerful electromagnetic field is formed around the ions, which generates an energy impulse capable of stimulating the lead nucleus. This phenomenon, known as electromagnetic dissociation, causes the ejection of three protons. Once this transformation has occurred, the lead becomes gold.

A small amount of gold has been produced

Despite this fascinating discovery, scientists urge caution. Between 2015 and 2018, LHC collisions produced about 86 billion gold nuclei. This quantity may seem colossal. But it represents only about 29 part of a trillion in a gram-such a small quantity that it has no real practical utility.

Taking into account the colossal cost of the operation -in terms of energy, time and resources -, this method of transforming lead into gold is extremely inefficient, as the website futurism.com.

However, researchers believe that this discovery is a major scientific progress, which will probably lead to new research directions. « It is for the first time that the process of leading lead into gold has been experimentally and systematically demonstrated at LHC, » said Uliana Dmitrieva, researcher at CERN.