--- title: "Scientists Accidentally Turned Lead Into Gold" description: "Using CERN's Large Hadron Collider, researchers found that experiments with lead nuclei caused the element to briefly transmute into gold." date: "2025-05-14" modified: "2025-05-14" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cern-lead-gold" categories: - "Physics" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "cern" - "large hadron collider" - "physics" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Accidentally Turned Lead Into Gold ![Researchers using CERN's Large Hadron Collider found that experiments with lead nuclei caused the element to briefly transmute into gold.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Goldfinger The mad geniuses over at CERN have accomplished what alchemists of yore never could: they turned lead into gold. As [detailed in a paper]() published last week in the journal *Physical Review C*, researchers working with the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) atom-annihilating Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accidentally transformed humble lead into temporary gold nuclei. The researchers are part of CERN's A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) project, which, put simply, involves scientists smashing atomic particles together at close to the speed of light in an attempt to replicate the conditions that followed the Big Bang. The discovery, they say, is an incidental outcome of their experimentation with collisions between lead nuclei, which contain three more protons than gold. Sometimes, as the paper explains, rather than hit each other directly, the ions graze past each other. And when that happens, the combined power of the ions' electromagnetic fields causes lead nuclei to release three of their protons in a process known as electromagnetic dissociation, effectively transmuting a lead nucleus into one of noble gold. ## Flashes of Gold Before anyone gets too excited: CERN scientists aren't about to unleash the hand of Midas. As [*Nature* reported](), the researchers estimate that LHC collisions conducted between 2015 and 2018 resulted in 86 billion accidental gold nuclei. While that may sound like a lot of gold, it isn't — it only comes out to around 29 trillionths of a gram, which is worth next to nothing. The nuclei were also short-lived and likely only lasted for a microsecond or so. This would also be a wildly inefficient way to try and create gold from lead at scale, [as *The Register* pointed out](), given how much [time, energy, and money]() go into powering the LHC. Regardless, researchers are chalking this up as a fascinating scientific finding that could pave the way for future experimentation. "Understanding such processes is crucial for controlling beam quality and stability," Stony Brook University physicist Jiangyong Jia, who has worked at the LHC, told *Nature*. While the gold flakes may be temporary, it's a stunning result nonetheless. "The transmutation of lead into gold is the dream of medieval alchemists," reads the paper, "which comes true at the LHC." **More on the Large Hadron Collider:** [*Something Wild Just Happened at the CERN Particle Accelerator*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()