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CERN’s LHC has momentarily transformed lead into gold in experiments.
The experiments were part of the ALICE project, focusing on nuclear physics.
This achievement echoes the ancient alchemical goal of transforming metals.
In a remarkable scientific achievement, physicists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have successfully transformed lead into gold, albeit momentarily. During high-energy collisions of lead nuclei, researchers observed the formation of gold nuclei, realizing an age-old alchemical aspiration through modern physics. These experiments, conducted as part of the ALICE project, provide valuable insights into the fundamental forces and conditions present shortly after the Big Bang.
In a paper published in Physical Review Journals, the ALICE collaboration reports measurements that quantify the transmutation of lead into gold in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
According to a release by CERN, transforming the base metal lead into the precious metal gold was a dream of mediaeval alchemists. This long-standing quest, known as chrysopoeia, may have been motivated by the observation that dull grey, relatively abundant lead is of a similar density to gold, which has long been coveted for its beautiful colour and rarity. It was only much later that it became clear that lead and gold are distinct chemical elements and that chemical methods are powerless to transmute one into the other.
With the dawn of nuclear physics in the 20th century, it was discovered that heavy elements could transform into others, either naturally, by radioactive decay, or in the laboratory, under a bombardment of neutrons or protons. Though gold has been artificially produced in this way before, the ALICE collaboration has now measured the transmutation of lead into gold by a new mechanism involving near-miss collisions between lead nuclei at the LHC.
