Startup claims it can make gold from mercury using fusion; science fiction turns real
However, a Silicon Valley startup now asserts that, with the use of
nuclear fusion
technology, it has finally solved the age-old alchemical enigma.
Explore courses from Top Institutes in
Please select course:
Select a Course Category
Public Policy
Operations Management
Design Thinking
Management
Leadership
Product Management
MBA
CXO
Artificial Intelligence
Degree
Healthcare
Finance
Digital Marketing
Project Management
Technology
Others
PGDM
Data Science
MCA
others
Data Science
healthcare
Data Analytics
Cybersecurity
Skills you'll gain:
Duration:
12 Months
IIM Calcutta
Executive Programme in Public Policy and Management
Starts on
undefined
Get Details
Skills you'll gain:
Economics for Public Policy Making
Quantitative Techniques
Public & Project Finance
Law, Health & Urban Development Policy
Duration:
12 Months
IIM Kozhikode
Professional Certificate Programme in Public Policy Management
Starts on
Mar 3, 2024
Get Details
By subjecting mercury isotopes to high-energy neutron bombardment,
Marathon Fusion
says it has found a way to turn mercury into gold.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
20 Highest-Salary Jobs for 2025
networthus.com
When two hydrogen isotopes are pushed together to make helium, a process known as nuclear fusion, the neutrons are released.
This implies that power generation and the alchemical process can coexist.
Live Events
"Our approach is economically irresistible, practically feasible, and massively scalable, in contrast to prior attempts," Marathon Fusion stated. "An entirely new golden age begins now."
The company has released a scientific article on the proposed transmutation technology and is working on fuel processing and recycling methods for the emerging fusion industry. Peer review has not yet been done on it.
Alchemy has been around for thousands of years, and its main goals have been turning metals into gold and finding an elixir of immortality. It has fascinated intellectuals for thousands of years, including Newton, the English physicist who created the mathematical law of universal gravitation in the latter part of the 17th century.
The creation of a "philosopher's stone" that would act as a catalyst to turn base metals like lead into gold was a fantasy of many.
Marathon's concept is based on using components from the well-known nuclear fusion process in its place.
When two hydrogen isotopes, tritium and deuterium, are forced together to form helium, high-energy subatomic particles known as neutrons are released. This process is known as fusion.
In order to achieve this, the deuterium and tritium atoms are heated to extremely high temperatures, more than 100 million degrees Celsius, and then confined to a small area, where they will clash. When helium atoms collide with the fuel particles, their energy is transferred and the reaction continues, making the process self-sustaining.
However, in order to guarantee that there is always an adequate amount of tritium in the mixture, fusion reactors usually contain other elements, such as beryllium, lead, or lithium isotopes.
Because they emit two neutrons in their place when struck by one, these are referred to as "multipliers."
Tritium is subsequently created when these additional neutrons react with lithium.
A radical change
Mercury-198, a typical type of mercury, is used as a multiplier in Marathon's approach. These atoms transform into mercury-197, a less stable form, when struck by a neutron.
Those atoms then spontaneously transform into a stable form of gold over a few days.
According to Marathon, this implies that gold supplies could be produced as a byproduct of the fusion process "without any compromise to fuel self-sufficiency or power output." According to the business, a fusion power station with a one gigawatt capacity could produce 5,000 kilogrammes of gold annually using the new method.
The business states that although the gold generated by the reaction is stable, it may contain some radioactive gold isotopes, which could require storage for up to 18 years.
Marathon's techno-economic modelling indicates that fusion plants could generate as much economic value from the production of gold as they do from the production of electricity, potentially doubling the facilities' value and drastically altering the economics of fusion and energy in general, the start-up continued. In addition to gold, it stated that the transmutation process might be utilised to create materials for "nuclear batteries," medicinal isotope synthesis, and precious metals like palladium.
Adam Rutkowski, a former engineer at SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, and Kyle Schiller, a fellow at Schmidt Futures, the research foundation founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, founded Marathon.
The method allows power plants to produce 5,000 kg of gold annually each gigawatt of energy generated (~2.5 GWth) without sacrificing power output or fuel self-sufficiency, claims the startup.
Leading investors including Strong Atomics and the 1517 Fund, as well as multiple grants from the US Department of Energy and the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, fund Marathon Fusion.
The Fusion community's reaction
Leading scientists are excited about the pre-print even as it awaits proper peer review:
"This new technology approach that Marathon Fusion is developing changes fundamentally how we should think about fusion as an energy source."
—
Dr. Per F. Peterson
, Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering at U.C. Berkeley and Scientific Advisor to Marathon Fusion
"The technology described could have a major impact on the economics of fusion energy if it's able to be fully realized and integrated into upcoming power plants. Improved economics could further relax some engineering and scientific requirements, accelerating the path to commercial deployment. This is potentially highly impactful, and I'll be paying close attention to the results of rigorous peer review"
—
Dr. Dan Brunner
, former CTO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Scientific Advisor to Marathon Fusion
"The discovery of scalable
gold transmutation
by leveraging fusion neutrons could fundamentally shift the techno-economic landscape. Marathon Fusion's breakthrough—commercial-scale gold synthesis via nuclear reactions—redefines fusion economics and could unlock the capital needed for next-generation power plants."
—
Dr. Ahmed Diallo
, Principal Research Physicist and Distinguished Research Fellow at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), and Scientific Advisor to Marathon Fusion
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
India protected all sensitive sectors in FTA with UK: Piyush Goyal
India has protected all sensitive sectors , including dairy , rice and sugar, in the free trade agreement with the UK, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. The pact will help boost exports of labour-intensive products like footwear, textiles and gems and jewellery, he added. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category PGDM Cybersecurity Others Technology MBA Product Management Artificial Intelligence Public Policy Leadership Design Thinking Digital Marketing MCA Healthcare Finance Data Analytics Management CXO Project Management Data Science Operations Management Data Science others healthcare Degree Skills you'll gain: Financial Analysis & Decision Making Quantitative & Analytical Skills Organizational Management & Leadership Innovation & Entrepreneurship Duration: 24 Months IMI Delhi Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Online) Starts on Sep 1, 2024 Get Details "We have protected all the sensitive sectors of have not opened for UK (those areas)....Zero compromise and extensive benefits makes it a phenomenal free trade agreement ( FTA )," Goyal told reporters here. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo The agreement was signed on July 24 in London . He added that the agreement will open doors for India to the developed world.
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
You can still outpace AI: Wharton professor reveals a ‘skill bundling' strategy to safeguard your future from automation
As artificial intelligence reshapes the modern workplace with stunning speed, one Wharton professor has a sobering message for today's professionals: the safest jobs of tomorrow aren't necessarily the most technical—they're the most complex. Ethan Mollick, associate professor at the Wharton School and author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, says job security in the AI era will increasingly depend on choosing roles that bundle multiple human skills together. That means emotional intelligence, judgment, creativity, and domain expertise—all woven into one. 'AI may outperform you in one or two things,' Mollick tells CNBC Make It, 'but if your job requires five or six of them, it's a lot harder to replace.' Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Project Management Data Science Operations Management Healthcare Data Analytics others Public Policy Product Management Others Digital Marketing Management Degree CXO Cybersecurity MBA Data Science healthcare Technology Leadership Finance MCA Artificial Intelligence Design Thinking PGDM Skills you'll gain: Portfolio Management Project Planning & Risk Analysis Strategic Project/Portfolio Selection Adaptive & Agile Project Management Duration: 6 Months IIT Delhi Certificate Programme in Project Management Starts on May 30, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Project Planning & Governance Agile Software Development Practices Project Management Tools & Software Techniques Scrum Framework Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Certificate Programme in IT Project Management Starts on Jun 20, 2024 Get Details It's the kind of insight that redefines how we think about employability in an increasingly automated world. And with AI usage surging—40% of U.S. workers now use it at least a few times a year, per a Gallup poll—these career choices have never mattered more. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Find out: this is how you clean your yoga mat! Kingdom Of Men Undo 'They're Aiming for Mass Unemployment' Mollick doesn't sugarcoat the AI wave ahead. Tech labs aren't just chasing progress—they're chasing a paradigm shift. 'Labs are aiming for machines smarter than humans within the next three years,' Mollick warns. 'They're betting on mass unemployment. Whether they succeed or not is still unclear, but we have to take it as a real possibility.' You Might Also Like: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls AI the 'greatest equalizer of our time', predicts it will create more millionaires than the internet Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang , whose company powers some of the most advanced AI systems, echoes that sentiment—albeit from a different vantage point. In a recent All-In podcast, Huang predicted AI will create more millionaires in five years than the internet did in 20, while also cautioning: 'Anybody who is not using AI will lose their job to someone who is.' Pick the Job with Layers, Not Just Titles What's the solution? According to Mollick, job seekers must rethink their strategy. 'Don't go for roles that do one thing,' he says. 'Pick a job like being a doctor—where you're expected to be good at empathy, diagnosis, hand skills, and research. If AI helps with some of it, you still have the rest.' This idea of "bundled roles"—where a single job draws on varied skills and responsibilities—could be the firewall against replacement. These complex, human-centered positions are harder for AI to replicate wholesale and leave more room for humans to collaborate with AI, not compete against it. Gen Z's Entry-Level Catch-22 AI's evolution could make entry-level roles scarce—or at least, radically different. 'Companies will need to rethink entry-level hiring,' Mollick notes. 'Not just for productivity, but for training future leaders.' You Might Also Like: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns of AI superintelligence outpacing Earth's energy limits: 'Chips will outrun power needs' Without the chance to learn through repetition—what Mollick calls 'apprenticeship'—younger workers may miss out on foundational skills. The result could be a workforce with knowledge gaps AI can't fill, even as those same gaps are used to justify greater automation. AI's Double-Edged Sword: Democratizer or Divider? Nvidia's Huang calls AI the 'greatest equalizer of our time' because it gives creative power to anyone who can express an idea. 'Everybody is a programmer now,' he says. But critics caution that this accessibility may also deepen divides between the AI-literate and those left behind. Eric Schmidt , former Google CEO, has a different concern: infrastructure. On the Moonshots podcast, Schmidt warned that AI's growth could be throttled not by chips, but by electricity. The U.S., he says, may need 92 more gigawatts of power to meet AI demands—equivalent to 92 new nuclear plants. As AI spreads into every corner of work, from payroll review (yes, Huang uses machine learning for that too) to high-stakes decision-making, the one thing that's clear is this: the rules are changing faster than most organizations can adapt. AI's Real Disruption? Leadership That Lags 'The tools are evolving fast,' Mollick says, 'but organizations aren't. And we can't ask employees to figure it all out on their own.' He believes the real danger isn't AI itself—but the lack of vision from leadership. Without a clear roadmap, workers are left adrift, trying to 'magic' their way into the future. In the race to stay relevant in the AI era, the best defense isn't to out-code or out-process a machine. It's to out-human it—by doubling down on the kind of nuanced, multi-layered work AI can't yet replicate. And by choosing jobs that ask you to wear many hats, not just one. Or as Mollick puts it: 'Bundled tasks are your best bet for surviving the AI takeover.'
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
THIS simple exercise may boost longevity; can add as many as 6 years!
A Copenhagen City Heart Study revealed that regular jogging significantly increases longevity. Men who jogged lived 6.2 years longer, while women gained 5.6 years. Living a whole life without diseases is every human being's dream. Longevity is not just about how many years you live; being healthy is also a crucial part of it. If you want to live longer and healthier, then exercise is non-negotiable. A study has shown that one type of exercise can dramatically increase life expectancy. A 2012 study led by researchers at the Copenhagen City Heart found that this exercise can add over five years to your life. The findings are published in Science Direct . Exercise and life expectancy (Pic courtesy: iStock) The study found that men who jogged regularly live 6.2 years longer, while women may get an additional 5.6 years. "The results of our research allow us to definitively answer the question of whether jogging is good for your health. We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity. The good news is that you don't actually need to do that much to reap the benefits" Schnohr, chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, said. Debates about the impact of jogging on health first came up in the 1970s when middle-aged men took an interest in the pastime. "After a few men died while out on a run, various newspapers suggested that jogging might be too strenuous for ordinary middle-aged people," Schnohr recalled. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like AirSense 11 – Smart tech for deep sleep ResMed Buy Now Undo The long-term study, which began in 1976, reviewed data from over 20,000 men and women aged 20 to 93. For the jogging sub-study, researchers compared mortality rates between 1,116 male joggers and 762 female joggers with non-joggers. The participants were asked to answer questions about the amount of time they spent jogging each week, and to rate their own perceptions of pace (defined as slow, average, and fast). "With participants having such a wide age span, we felt that a subjective scale of intensity was the most appropriate approach," Schnohr, who is based at Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen, explained. The first data was collected between 1976 to 1978, the second from 1981 to 1983, the third from 1991 to 1994, and the fourth from 2001 to 2003. The participants were tracked using a unique ID number in the Danish Central Person Register. "These numbers have been key to the success of the study since they've allowed us to trace participants wherever they go," Schnohr added. What did they find There were 10,158 deaths among the non-joggers and 122 deaths among the joggers, in a follow-up period of a maximum of 35 years. The researchers found that the risk of death was reduced by 44% for male joggers and 44% for female joggers. Further data showed that jogging added 6.2 years of life in men and 5.6 years in women. The best outcomes were seen in people who jogged for one to two and a half hours every week, spread over two to three sessions, particularly at a slow or moderate pace. The researchers also noted that the pace really matters. The ideal pace can be achieved by striving to feel a little breathless. "You should aim to feel a little breathless, but not very breathless," he added. Jagdeep Dhankhar Resigns as Vice President on First Day of Parliament's Monsoon Session Jogging also improved oxygen uptake, increased insulin sensitivity, improved lipid profiles (raising HDL and lowering triglycerides), lowered blood pressure, reduced platelet aggregation, increased fibrinolytic activity, improved cardiac function, bone density, immune function, reduced inflammation markers, prevented obesity, and improves psychological function. "The improved psychological wellbeing may be down to the fact that people have more social interactions when they're out jogging," Schnohr said.
