this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Scientists turn lead into gold for 1st time, but only for a split second (abcnews.go.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] gargolito@lemm.ee 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So... Not really?

[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 38 points 2 weeks ago

Counts as long as they found a buyer in that window

[–] oce@jlai.lu 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

And for 1000000 times the cost of normal extraction probably.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The goal isn't to come up with an economical way to produce gold. Read the last 2 paragraphs

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

But consider the last several hundred years of alchemy.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 2 points 2 weeks ago

I know.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks ago

To be fair, we could probably do a lot better if we purpose-built a machine to make gold. And Pb->Au isn't even likely the most ideal path. That was only chosen to fulfill the ancient alchemy dreams.