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Some of the collisions would be expected to remove three protons from lead, or one proton from mercury, to produce gold. “It is relatively straightforward to convert lead, bismuth or...
One of the supreme quests of alchemists was to transmute (transform) lead into gold. Lead (atomic number 82) and gold (atomic number 79) are defined as elements by the number of protons they possess. Changing the element requires changing the atomic (proton) number.
Alchemists from China, India and Europe were for centuries obsessed with the transformation of base metals (particularly lead) into gold. They sought a mythical substance, called the “philosopher’s stone,” to accomplish this task, with no success.
Using lead to make gold isn’t a great strategy, as lead has 3 protons more than gold. A better bet would be to use either mercury (1 more proton than gold) or platinum (1 less proton than gold). The earliest experiments in transmuting a base metal into gold come from 1924.
MIT physicists have metaphorically turned graphite, or pencil lead, into gold by isolating five ultrathin flakes stacked in a specific order. The resulting material can then be tuned to exhibit three important properties never before seen in natural graphite.
In this post, we’ll look at how alchemy came to be, how the study of matter transitioned to the science of chemistry we know today, and how humans finally discovered how to turn lead into gold.
Is it actually possible to turn lead into gold? With scientists’ efforts and their creativity, we finally found “the real philosopher’s stone" and can turn l...
The best way I can think of doing it would be to use lead as a cyclotron target, I would need to bombard it with very high energy protons. My intention would be to form Bi-197. By making a proton enter the nucleous of the lead, if the resulting nucleous has a high energy it would emit some neutrons or alpha particles or even some protons.
There's a long history of early scientists trying to turn one element into another. Watch Exploratorium Senior Sci...
MIT physicists have metaphorically turned graphite, or pencil lead, into gold by isolating five ultrathin flakes stacked in a specific order. The resulting material can then be tuned to exhibit three important properties never before seen in natural graphite.