TRANSFORMING LEAD INTO GOLD
Editor’s Note: Yasemin Cag (‘19) explores early Alchemists’, seemingly futile, belief that lead can be turned into gold and reveals a new twist to the myth due to modern day technology and science.
For centuries, people have pursued the ultimate goal - the formula to turning lead, an ordinary, common, metal, into precious gold. The forefathers of modern day chemists were in fact alchemists whose biggest desire, in addition to gaining immortality, was to make this transformation. Alchemists believed that all properties in the Earth were made of a combination of earth, fire, water, and air, a theory proposed by philosopher Aristotle around 300 BCE. They also believed that rather than being the unchanging elements that we know them to be today, all properties could build on one another in order to reach higher perfection. Therefore, it was thought that lead, being a lesser property (and a representation of evil and “dirtiness”), could be altered to become gold, which was seen as the ultimate property, an embodiment of good, success, and beauty in addition to being very valuable. Today we understand why alchemy, and the quest to transform lead to gold, was fundamentally flawed from the very beginning.
All elements are not made of the same 4 base elements and therefore are not connected together as it was believed. In modern day chemistry we know that all elements are created from atoms, finitely small pieces of matter, that are unique to every particular element. Elements are created based on the number of protons that are in the nucleus of atoms - add or subtract one proton, and the element becomes something totally different with completely different chemical properties. Lead has 82 protons in its nucleus while gold has 79. It would simply be impossible for an alchemist from the Middle Ages to subtract 3 protons from the nucleus of a lead atom to transform it into gold. We have dismissed this dream of alchemists as silly folly for years, believing that there is no way to transform one element into another. However, it turns out that they were not completely wrong.
With new technology, scientists are now able to make lead into gold, or really any element into any other. It involves using a particle accelerator to speed up an atom to almost light speeds in order to crash it into another atom, effectively breaking off a part of its nucleus and leaving it with less protons, making it into an atom of a different element. Speeding up an atom to crash into a lead atom and clip off 3 protons from its nucleus would result in a gold atom. Unfortunately, this process is extremely expensive, time consuming, inaccurate, and results in very small amounts of the final product. The interesting aspect of this project is not the process as much as the realization that it is actually possible to do something that was sought for hundreds of years, but then was dismissed as being impossible. Alchemists were correct that there was a way to transform lead into gold, but were wrong about how to go about it and didn’t have the capabilities that we have to do it. The fact that a concept as “ridiculous” as transforming lead into gold is now possible, leads one to think about what other things we may be able to accomplish with future technology or knowledge that we think is impossible today.
Work Cited
Matson, J. (2014, January 31). Fact or Fiction?: Lead Can Be Turned into Gold. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-lead-can-be-turned-into-gold/.
Radford, B. (2016, March 24). What is Alchemy? Retrieved March 31, 2017, from http://www.livescience.com/39314-alchemy.html.
All elements are not made of the same 4 base elements and therefore are not connected together as it was believed. In modern day chemistry we know that all elements are created from atoms, finitely small pieces of matter, that are unique to every particular element. Elements are created based on the number of protons that are in the nucleus of atoms - add or subtract one proton, and the element becomes something totally different with completely different chemical properties. Lead has 82 protons in its nucleus while gold has 79. It would simply be impossible for an alchemist from the Middle Ages to subtract 3 protons from the nucleus of a lead atom to transform it into gold. We have dismissed this dream of alchemists as silly folly for years, believing that there is no way to transform one element into another. However, it turns out that they were not completely wrong.
With new technology, scientists are now able to make lead into gold, or really any element into any other. It involves using a particle accelerator to speed up an atom to almost light speeds in order to crash it into another atom, effectively breaking off a part of its nucleus and leaving it with less protons, making it into an atom of a different element. Speeding up an atom to crash into a lead atom and clip off 3 protons from its nucleus would result in a gold atom. Unfortunately, this process is extremely expensive, time consuming, inaccurate, and results in very small amounts of the final product. The interesting aspect of this project is not the process as much as the realization that it is actually possible to do something that was sought for hundreds of years, but then was dismissed as being impossible. Alchemists were correct that there was a way to transform lead into gold, but were wrong about how to go about it and didn’t have the capabilities that we have to do it. The fact that a concept as “ridiculous” as transforming lead into gold is now possible, leads one to think about what other things we may be able to accomplish with future technology or knowledge that we think is impossible today.
Work Cited
Matson, J. (2014, January 31). Fact or Fiction?: Lead Can Be Turned into Gold. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-lead-can-be-turned-into-gold/.
Radford, B. (2016, March 24). What is Alchemy? Retrieved March 31, 2017, from http://www.livescience.com/39314-alchemy.html.
