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    • 2013 Publication

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.
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  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • HOW TO SUBMIT
  • Past Publications
    • 2019 Publication >
      • Scientific Research
      • Mathematical Exploration
      • Scientific Exploration
      • Computer Science
    • 2018 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Scientific Research
    • 2017 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Scientific Research
    • 2016 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
      • Scientific Research
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Artistic Creations
    • 2015 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Bell Curves
        • Birds Vs. Turbines
        • Energy in the Obama Era
        • The Future of Neuroscience
        • Gender Gap in Math
        • GMOs--Yes or No?
        • The History of Minecraft: How a Swedish Indie Game Came to Dominate the World
        • The Effect of Prozac on the Brain
        • Philae Lander's Discovery of Organic Molecules
        • Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Turbines
        • Your Own Worst Enemy: An Overview of Lupus
        • The Methylhex Ban
        • The Effect of Lyme Disease on the Immune system
        • Infectious Mononucleosis
        • Replacing CFCs
        • The Switch
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • The 43rd Figure
        • The Clock
        • The Collatz Conjecture
        • Constructing a Soccer Ball
        • Determining how Ballparks Affect Batter's Ability to Create Hits
        • The Rotating Conundrum
        • Pythagorean Puzzle
        • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
        • Kinetics Lab
        • Math in the Restaurant Business
        • Math as a Vessel for Social Change
        • Sustainability of Bottled Vs. Tap Water
        • Thoughts on the Lottery
        • Understanding Player Efficiency Rating
      • Scientific Research >
        • Communicating With Computers
        • The Mystery of Asthma
        • The Nanoscopic War Against Cancer
        • Phytochemistry
        • Solving the energy crisis with Intermediate Band Solar Cells
        • A Pain That Never Ends
        • Rapamycin Resistance
        • Ampacity of a Single Core Horizontal Cable
        • Morphological Properties of Texting Acronym Formation
        • cGAS and STING Expression
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Can Humans Survive the Climate Crisis?
        • My Experience as a Teacher's Assistant
        • Ted Talk Responses
        • Teens For Food Justice
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Chandelier
        • Deltoidal Hexacontrahedon
        • Dodecahedron Card Trick
        • Eye of the Triangle
        • Free Radric Delantic Davis
        • The Grid
        • What Does A Randomly Composed Song Sound Like?
        • Science Wing Mural
    • 2014 Publication >
      • Cover Photo
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Art Using the Fibonacci Sequence
        • Computer Generated Architecture and Designs
        • Mathematical Landscape
        • Math Art
        • Math in Music
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Algae Bio-Fuel
        • An Energy Alternative
        • Clean Energy In Transportation
        • Calorie Restriction
        • Creating Energy in the Modern World
        • Dietary Intervention Impact on Gut Microbial Gene Richness
        • Earthly Applications for NASA Technology
        • Explaining Relative Motion
        • Exploring Artificial Inteligence
        • Gamma Function
        • How Leaves Work
        • Hydrogen Fuel Cells
        • Music and Brain Development
        • Programming Calculators
        • The Science of Microsatellites
        • Sci-Fi Taser
        • Sloane's Gap
        • Sustainable Energy: Why Some Ideas Shine Brighter than Others
        • Understanding The Galvanic Cell
        • The Virus: Our Unforeseen Philosopher's Stone
        • What Are Fuel Cells and How Do They Work?
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • Astrocytes Expressing ALS-Linked Mutated SOD1 Release Factors Selectively Toxic to Motor Neurons
        • Big Bang
        • Dictyostelium Discoideum
        • The Future of Solar Cell Technology
        • And Many More...
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Alternative Energy Sources, New but Unused
        • An Insight Into the Curious World of Ethnobotany
        • Challenging What We Think We Know
        • The Current State of American Education
        • Discovering New Numbers
        • Interview With an Architect
        • Life of Pi Response
        • Mathematical Art Video Commentary
        • Missing from Science Class
        • The Museum of Math
        • The Inside Scoop on a Real Mathematician
    • 2013 Publication