Oktay74tn
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CERN LHC Observes Conversion of Lead into Gold
Oktay Yürük aka Oktay74tn, science and tech content
https://imgur.com/user/Oktay74tn
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is one of the detector experiments at the Large Hadron Collider LHC at CERN. It was built to observe high-energy collisions between lead nuclei. This picture shows ALICE with the magnetic doors opened. The detector has a mass of 10,000 tons and a length of 26 meters.
This is a reconstruction of lead ion collisions recorded by ALICE. Lead-208 is the heaviest stable isotope. With 82 protons and 126 neutrons, it has full nuclear shells and is called doubly magic.
Magic numbers in nuclear physics are 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126.
Gold isotopes were produced by ultraperipheral collisions of lead-208 nuclei. A short-lived photon interacts with the nucleus and generates oscillations in which protons and neutrons are emitted.
The outermost 6s orbital of gold is contracted by a relativistic effect. This makes gold a noble metal and gives it its beautiful yellowish color.
CERN Physicists Observe Conversion of Lead into Gold
https://www.sci.news/physics/cern-lead-gold-conversion-13896.html
Proton emission in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at √???=5.02 TeV
S. Acharya, A. Agarwal, G. Aglieri Rinella, L. Aglietta, M. Agnello, N. Agrawal, Z. Ahammed, S. Ahmad, S. U. Ahn et al.
https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.111.054906
ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC
https://home.cern/news/news/physics/alice-detects-conversion-lead-gold-lhc
First lead-ion collisions in the LHC at record energy
https://alice-collaboration.web.cern.ch/Nov2022_leadtest
Wikipedia articles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALICE_experiment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(physics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis_of_precious_metals
magus200342
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1OWJlMjF6bnI0YWl4dnluaG4wcG5xaDJldjd0bGcyaTI1MDdiMnowYiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/gB2yrZ5cjUpAQ/200w.webp
RustyRedbeard
So we knock bits off the edges until we get something we can use? That's how we started with stone tools. Fascinating.
Jezzz
Funny to think an 8billion dollar particle accelerator is the modern equivalent of flint knapping..
PaperinoVB
Apparently we can use words to the same effect. Man, your comment is gold!
Ambipolar
Follow for more easy tricks to get rich quick!
Oktay74tn
This is far from an industrial gold production, because these are just individual atomic nuclei. I find it still very interesting because it's about a conversion of elements.
imaynotbeasmartmanjenny
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlcjI3dnUzeDhmeWtzZDk2NWl0YmVpZTllMXYwYTB3OXlicDJoZnYxYiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/j6uK36y32LxQs/giphy.mp4 incoming money hungry investors!!!!
j4gr
During Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018), the ALICE experiment detected approximately 86 billion gold nuclei produced through this method. However, these gold atoms were ephemeral, existing for mere fractions of a second before decaying or colliding with the beam pipe. The total mass of gold produced was about 29 picograms—far too little to be of economic value, but a significant scientific achievement nonetheless .
ballsmcnadfrop
The Hudson Hawk would be proud.
bingtittletittlebong
graehall
Well would you like to swing on a star? Carry moonbeams home in a jar...
4Astaroth
And be better off than you are or would you rather be a mule?
Yakeshinu
Oktay74tn
That's the real goal. Making the stable isotope 197Au, not just a mixture of unstable isotopes like 203Au.
rrlyrae
LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone. ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions. CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind. They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find. The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead, and the things that it discovers will rock you in the head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM
SumDumGuyOG
No more recycling computer chips and cell phones for me! Gonna get me one of these colliders!
Oktay74tn
I was thinking something similar. Maybe one day it will be possible to use lasers to produce gold nanowires from lead.
ELPimbo
We went there on a field trip in 2009 from our high school physics class. We got to marvel the insights of the ALICE. Since it was on maintenance because of helium leak. Awesome trip, but I was too young to understand anything. Now, I would marvel it from an engineering standpoint.
Oktay74tn
I find the subatomic world and fundamental research very fascinating.
zeacorzeppelin10
We've done it!
dripstone
yes sounds like an expensive way to make gold...
theproblemis
I mean we have been able to do this for a while, Nucleosynthesis is not new science. CERN just isn't trying to do this.
hogeyegrex
GeneralPrower
Now they're doing alchemy?
UnitConversionBot
26 meters ≈ 85 feet, 4 inches
pemgur
How many dishwashers is that?
ebonyfaery
That narrator was too Swiss to be talking that fast in English.
henrybasic
Ah scary
BeardOnTheInside
Spirits of medieval alchemists right now:
EchoDelta141
Will gold and diamonds drop in value when we can just make it in a laboratory setting?
newsguycraigevans
Lab grown diamonds have been a thing for a long time. The value is still artificially inflated.
Jezzz
Diamonds have inflated worth due to massive marketing and social engineering. Mosanite is the superior stone in refractive shine although slightly lower on the hardness scale.
EchoDelta141
Why have one of the hardest material to damage on earth and treat it like its the most fragile thing once its put on jewelry and polished. Its genuinely one of the dumbest waste of money. Its worth more at the end of a drill tip than it is on an over priced ring just to shine. There are literally shinier, prettier stones. Its just not as rememberable as a diamond, becuase culture and society yada yada yada. Anything can be a diamond with enough heat and pressure, its not that special.
cosinewave
Probably not. You would not even be able to see the quantity produced by this experiment. Single ions are being synthesized not gold bars. And at that, the cost is so high it would not be worth it.
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Thissideupusenohooks
I came a-scrolling to find this very comment. Bravo
DingoWoof
It's not really a nugget is it. It's more of a splat.
SF0X
It only took $8b of high tech equip to take a few lead atoms to convert to gold. If only the alchemists knew that when they started.
counterintel
The money spent along the way, was the alchemy after all.
mikeatike
There was an episode of the old black and white Superman show where villains kidnapped a scientist that figured out how to turn lead to gold.
When Superman saves him, he says "the process is simple, first we need 1 bar of lead and 1 bar of platinum..."
welluhwhatdoyouwantmetosay
There was one alchemist who saved the town's urine in his basement to get that gold. He discovered both phosphorous and spontaneous combustion. When alchemists experimented with gold, they just smelted the failure back to gold. There were probably several discoveries of auric fulminate.
RustyRedbeard
I think that's dreadfully unfair to the mighty pestle and mortar.
thelegendofthetwistednavigator
It would cost 1.3quadrillion/oz
So not exactly economically viable
HandoB4Javert
jtxyz
You need to take inflation into account...alchemy was popular 500 years ago?
$8 billion back then was probably the equivalent of about 4 bucks in local currency.
Still a lot, though.
wagnus
I'm just impressed that they had USD back then, at all, really
Oktay74tn
Yes, it is expensive but it could give great contributions to science. Germany is about to spend € 500 billion extra for weapons which has zero benefits for humanity.
mikeatike
Ask Ukraine about that.
PolitiCat
Not investing it would cost us and humanity more. Putin needs to be stopped. Ideally of course for much cheaper by assassination, but the politicians are too afraid to go this route.
villlllle
Go visit Mariupol to see what happens to humanity when they dont have enough deterrence to keep Russia away. If the 500 billion euros are used to destroy russia, humanity comes ahead.
youcanreachmenow
Do you have a lock on your doors and windows?
FireLynxNL
Yes but also no, Germany rearming means that putin will be less likely to be stupid enough to invade the rest of Europe, so it could be seen as a benefit for humanity. But I do understand that the spending on its own doesn't benefit humanity.
madeejit
Spending on house insurance doesn't benefit anyone either. Until your house catches fire.
JackDeHearts
I'd be happy if we could all get along but unfortunately Putin is determined to invade europe. Americans may not gaf but we live here.
TheDildoOfConsequences
Speaking as someone who lives and pays taxes in Germany, I reluctantly favour spending that money. I won't gain much by spending it, but at this point it looks like I stand to lose a lot by not spending it.
InconspicuousLampshade
The fact the civilized world isn't alarmed about Germany ramping up its military shows how far they've come to restore their reputation (and yes, I'm not including Russia as "civilized". They should be scared).
ThatHurts
Germany has shown through generations of actions and policy how much it regrets its past while other nations seem to be aspiring to it.
Zamerine
It's true in an ideal world.
It is not in our fucked up world.
Enough weapons, even if not used, gives one the ability to protect (as well as the ability to destroy but ... well ... let's try to stay optimistic) and every life protected is an added benefit to humanity.
Feralkyn
Huh? How is it zero benefits? There's a fucking warmonger trying to take over to the north, ofc they need to rearm. They need to rearm -yesterday.-
gesel
Other than, you know, preventing Russia doing to eastern europe what they've done to Ukraine, so far killing 2.6% of the population.
So maybe it is a crappy reality that humans are fundamentally territorial, violent animals and that the primary purpose of technology is to expand one's radius of lethality, but denying that reality will result not in utopia but genocide.
certainlynotaserialkiller
they are spending that so there will be less russians. that is the benefit for humanity.
villlllle
Exactly.
DexterBugBandit
And what a great humanist you are, truly a beacon of humanism
villlllle
I don't think anyone here is claiming to be a great humanist. This is just realism. Russia is a threat to humanity, and the death of that terrorist nation is a net positive.
4Astaroth
We are all against war but it is obvious that if we don't help Ukraine EU will be next on the list. We have to be prepared for all the right wing extremists around us that try to rise to power.
JackDeHearts
*fewer
pixelsnader