Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

In a landmark experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, scientists briefly turned lead into gold by removing three protons through near-miss atomic collisions. The ALICE collaboration generated 89,000 gold atoms per second, though each existed only fleetingly. While economically insignificant, the breakthrough showcases the precision of particle physics and advances understanding of atomic behaviour in high-energy environments.