Scientists Transform Lead into Gold Using the Large Hadron Collider

CERN Achieves Lead-to-Gold Transmutation for the First Time

The centuries-old dream of turning base metals into gold has finally taken a scientific leap forward. CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) has reported a successful experiment in which lead nuclei were transformed into gold atoms inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator.

The Experiment

Between 2015 and 2018, during LHC’s Run 2, researchers conducted ultra-peripheral collisions of lead nuclei—where the nuclei don’t hit directly but pass close enough to interact via extremely strong electromagnetic fields. In these events, three protons were stripped from the lead nuclei, effectively transmuting them into gold.

This transformation was detected using ALICE's Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs), which allowed scientists to identify and systematically analyze the creation of gold atoms in the collider for the first time.

Results

Approximately 86 billion gold nuclei were produced in these collisions, totaling around 29 picograms of gold. However, the gold atoms existed only for a fleeting moment before decaying, rendering the event scientifically groundbreaking but economically insignificant.

Scientific Importance

While the amount of gold created was infinitesimal, the implications for nuclear physics are profound. The experiment deepens understanding of electromagnetic dissociation and nuclear reactions, and could help improve beam loss models in high-energy particle colliders.

Historical and Philosophical Significance

This experiment echoes the ambitions of ancient alchemists, who believed that base metals could be turned into precious ones. Unlike the mysticism of old, today’s scientific method has provided a glimpse of how elemental transformation is possible—however temporary—through the manipulation of nuclear matter.

Conclusion

CERN’s achievement in turning lead into gold—though limited in scale and duration—represents a monumental moment in physics. It also serves as a symbolic fulfillment of a timeless human aspiration, illustrating the power of modern science to probe the very fabric of matter.

Primary Source: CERN News

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