Medieval alchemists can finally claim a victory after scientists at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) managed to turn lead into gold. But there's a catch: The newly transformed gold is too small to see and doesn't stay gold for very long.
According to ABC News, scientists used the LHC to fire lead atoms in opposite directions, calculating the trajectories to ensure that the atoms were close enough for their electromagnetic fields to interact, but with enough space to avoid a head-on collision. The near-miss disrupted the magnetic fields enough to knock three protons loose out of each lead atom — and transforming them into gold atoms for a tiny fraction of a second before they break apart entirely.
The researchers were able to replicate the results on successive experiments, and found that they could create about 89,000 gold atoms per second. In total, the experiments have yielded around 86 billion gold atoms. Those atoms are long gone now, but had they remained, they would have added up to around one-trillionth of one gram.
It's a triumph for modern scientists, but perhaps a mixed bag for the medieval alchemists who labored for centuries with much less success. Either way, no one ends up with extra gold in their pockets.