Transform lead into gold. Many people (mainly) have imagined themselves in alchemists, fed on the stories of Nicolas Flamel. This dream has come true thanks to the physicists of the CERN. Finally … the time of a fraction of a second.
“With the advent of nuclear physics in the 20th century, it appeared that heavy elements could turn into others, either naturally, by radioactive disintegration, or in the laboratory, under a bombardment of neutrons or protons,” evokes the European organization for nuclear research. Although gold has already been produced artificially in this way, collaboration Alice [un détecteur spécialisé dans la physique des ions lourds] Now has been measured the golden lead transmutation by a new process based on quasi-collisions of lead nuclei. »»
The explanation is a bit technical, but, to put it simply, a lead nucleus contains 92 protons. A gold nucleus 89. Due to the very high speed at which lead nuclei circulate in the LHC, the most powerful particle accelerator never built (99.999993 % of the speed of light), the lines of the electromagnetic field are flattened as a pancake and produce a program of short -term photons. Interacting with a nucleus, this can cause oscillations of the internal structure thereof, which leads to the ejection of a small number of neutrons and protons.
Our file on CERN
“Gold is only a tiny fraction of a second,” says CERN. However, the total remains thousands of billions of times lower than the quantity it would take to make a jewel. “Although the dream of alchemists of the Middle Ages has technically become a reality, their hope of making a fortune vanishes once again,” smile the scientists. Not to mention that gold has value only because it is rare. If it became possible to produce it in unlimited quantity, it would lose its interest at the same time!
