In a historic breakthrough that echoes the age-old dream of alchemy, scientists at CERN have successfully transformed lead into gold—if only for a fleeting moment. This astonishing feat was achieved during the ALICE experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world’s largest and most advanced particle physics laboratory.
The transformation occurred inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27-kilometer underground ring designed to smash subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light. Researchers reported that in these high-energy collisions, lead nuclei accelerated to extreme velocities generate intense electromagnetic fields. These fields trigger a process known as electromagnetic dissociation, in which three protons are ejected from a lead nucleus, creating, for an instant, a gold nucleus.
Though the amount of gold created is minuscule, just 29 picograms during Run 2 of the experiment, this transformation was carefully detected using ALICE’s ultra-sensitive zero-degree calorimeters. These specialized instruments capture and count subatomic interactions, enabling scientists to confirm the formation of gold atoms under extreme conditions.
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This cutting-edge research not only fulfills theoretical models of nuclear transmutation but also opens new insights into beam loss mechanisms within high-energy colliders.
As CERN gears up for Run 3 of the ALICE experiment, with upgraded technology and even higher luminosity, scientists expect to push the frontiers of modern physics even further.
While the dream of producing gold from lead once belonged to medieval alchemists, today it’s the domain of world-class physicists armed with precision instruments and particle accelerators. This latest discovery from CERN is a shining example of how modern science continues to transform mythical ambitions into measurable, albeit microscopic, reality.
