Scientists Have Created Gold From Lead In The CERN Large Hadron Collider
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:
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
2 days ago
- India Today
Modern alchemist: American startup claims it can turn metal into gold
The age-old quest to turn ordinary metals into gold, a dream of alchemy, has seen a scientific revival thanks to advances in nuclear physics and fusion classic alchemists expected to achieve this through mystical means, modern science understands how to change one element into another using particle physics. However, the practical challenges remain startup Marathon Fusion, now claims a new way to turn metal into The company has proposed an innovative technique harnessing neutron radiation inside nuclear fusion reactors. Their method involves bombarding mercury-198 isotopes with high-energy neutrons. This creates radioactive mercury-197, which then decays into stable gold-197—the only naturally stable isotope of a gigawatt thermal fusion plant could produce several tonnes of gold is not improbabvle since, At CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, physicists smash subatomic particles together, sometimes creating trace amounts of gold. Making gold from mercury via fusion is scientifically plausible. (Photo: Getty) The ALICE experiment, for instance, produced a mere 29 picograms of gold over four years, a quantity so minuscule it would take hundreds of times the universe's age to yield a troy ounce. Clearly, particle accelerators are nowhere near practical for gold key challenge is generating the intense neutron flux with energy levels above 6 million electron volts to initiate this transmutation. Marathon Fusion employs a "digital twin," a sophisticated computer model of fusion reactor physics, to predict no commercial fusion reactor exists to validate these projections, leaving the approach reactors themselves remain experimental, grappling with complex hurdles like new material development and stable plasma control. Advanced projects such as the UK's Joint European Torus (JET) have produced modest energy output, but future designs like the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) aim to be operational by 2040, potentially unlocking fusion power's critical consideration: any gold formed would initially be radioactive waste, necessitating careful handling and decay time before it becomes usable. This adds another layer of complexity and making gold from mercury via fusion is scientifically plausible and exciting as a concept, it currently remains an impractical and scientists alike await breakthroughs in fusion technology before a modern "gold rush" can begin. Until then, the alchemist's dream persists more as a tantalizing future possibility than immediate reality.- EndsTrending Reel
Indian Express
22-07-2025
- Indian Express
Matter's elusive dark twin: Most expensive substance in the universe
In 1930, theoretical physicist Paul Dirac was trying to reconcile quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of relativity when his equations hinted at something strange: the existence of a 'mirror' particle identical to the electron, but with opposite charge. Its implications made him uneasy — that every particle has an antiparticle, and that perhaps the whole of nature is constructed in this way. Dirac's calculation wasn't to be a mere mathematical quirk. Two years later, American particle physicist Carl Anderson found the positron, the electron's antimatter twin, in cosmic ray experiments. It was a moment of rare scientific poetry: a particle predicted by pure mathematics, then seen in nature. Antimatter sounds like something from science fiction. And indeed, it has captured the imagination of writers from Star Trek (where it powers warp drives) to Angels and Demons (where it threatens to obliterate Vatican City). But antimatter is very real, though vanishingly rare in our universe. Whenever a particle meets its antiparticle, they annihilate in a flash of energy — converting all their mass, as per Einstein's , into pure light. That property makes antimatter the most energy-dense substance imaginable. A single gram could, in theory, produce as much energy as a nuclear bomb. But if it's so powerful, why don't we use it? And why don't we see it everywhere? Here lies one of the deepest mysteries in cosmology. The Big Bang, as we understand it, should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But for reasons not yet fully known, the early universe tipped the scales ever so slightly toward matter — by just one part in a billion. That tiny excess is what makes up everything we see: stars, galaxies, people, planets. The rest annihilated with its antimatter counterpart in the early universe. Physicists are still trying to understand why the universe has this imbalance. One possibility is that antimatter behaves slightly differently than matter — a tiny asymmetry in how particles decay, known as CP violation. Experiments at CERN and Fermilab are probing these effects, but so far, no definitive explanation has emerged. The reality of antimatter: not just theory Despite its elusiveness, antimatter isn't merely theoretical. We make it — routinely. In fact, hospitals around the world use positrons (antimatter electrons) every day in PET scans. The 'P' in PET stands for 'positron,' and the scan works by injecting a radioactive tracer that emits positrons. When these encounter electrons in the body, they annihilate and emit gamma rays, which are detected to create precise images of tissues. Physicists at CERN's Antimatter Factory even trap anti-hydrogen atoms, composed of an antiproton and a positron, in magnetic fields for a few milliseconds at a time, to study their properties. The dream is to answer a simple but profound question: does antimatter fall down like regular matter, or does it somehow respond differently to gravity? Early experiments suggest it falls the same way, but the precision isn't yet conclusive. Energy source or weapon? Harnessing antimatter sounds like a sci-fi superpower, and indeed, the energy from matter-antimatter annihilation could, in theory, power spacecraft far more efficiently than any rocket we've built. But there's a catch: antimatter is mind-bogglingly expensive. Producing a single gram would cost about $60 trillion using today's particle accelerators. Worse, storing it safely is a nightmare. Let it touch anything, and boom, it annihilates. That hasn't stopped the speculation. NASA has funded studies on antimatter propulsion, suggesting it could one day shorten interstellar travel. But for now, it remains out of reach, a gleaming prize at the edge of possibility. Antimatter in space Cosmic rays from deep space occasionally strike Earth's upper atmosphere, producing short-lived showers of antimatter particles. The International Space Station even carries an instrument called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, scanning for signs of antimatter nuclei that could hint at entire regions of the universe made of antimatter — a speculative idea, but one not yet ruled out. Neutron stars and black hole jets may also generate antimatter in tiny amounts, adding to the cosmic fireworks. But overall, the universe appears matter-dominated. Why nature chose this option, why there's something instead of nothing, remains among the deepest riddles in physics. Final Reflections In Star Trek, antimatter is a tame servant of human ambition. In reality, it's a fleeting, elusive shadow of the particles we know. Dirac's equations suggested a universe with perfect symmetry, but nature, like a mischievous artist, left a flaw in the mirror. The story of antimatter reminds us that physics isn't just about numbers or formulas. It's about imagination, daring, and a relentless curiosity about the hidden sides of reality. Somewhere in the collision of matter and anti-matter lies a spark — of annihilation, yes, but also of wonder. Shravan Hanasoge is an astrophysicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
21-07-2025
- First Post
Have scientists decoded why the universe exists? Cern study points to matter-antimatter asymmetry
The finding offers vital clues to the long-standing mystery of why the universe is composed predominantly of matter, rather than being annihilated by an equal amount of antimatter read more A new study has shed light on one of humankind's fundamental queries: Why does the universe exist? Image courtesy: Nasa A new study at CERN has provided critical insights into one of the most fundamental questions in physics: why does anything exist at all? Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment have observed a rare form of symmetry violation in the decays of beauty baryons– particles containing a bottom quark. The finding offers vital clues to the long-standing mystery of why the universe is composed predominantly of matter, rather than being annihilated by an equal amount of antimatter. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The study, published in Nature, reports the observation of charge–parity (CP) violation in a baryonic decay process, marking a significant development in the quest to understand the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the early universe. What did the scientists observe? The experiment focused on a specific decay of the beauty baryon, into a proton, a kaon (K−), and two pions (π+ and π−). This decay can occur via two different quark-level pathways: one involving a bottom-to-up (b → u) transition and another involving a bottom-to-strange (b → s) transition. Crucially, the researchers found that these two processes do not behave symmetrically when matter is swapped for antimatter. This violation of CP symmetry is a direct indication that the laws of physics are not entirely the same for matter and antimatter– a foundational requirement for explaining why the universe didn't simply self-destruct in a flash of mutual annihilation shortly after the Big Bang. Why is CP violation so important? CP violation had previously been observed in the decays of mesons– particles made of a quark and an antiquark. However, baryons (made of three quarks) are less explored in this context. The new findings from the LHCb collaboration represent the first clear evidence of CP violation in baryon decays, expanding the frontier of known symmetry-breaking phenomena. This asymmetry is a necessary component in explaining the observed dominance of matter in the universe. Without it, the Standard Model predicts that equal amounts of matter and antimatter would have been produced in the early universe– leading to their mutual destruction.
