Not Entirely Cost Effective

In transmutation news:

Scientists at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider have successfully transformed lead into gold.

The team behind this discovery… used a unique way to create gold. Instead of crashing lead atoms head-on, they looked at what happens when the atoms just barely miss each other. Researchers explained that when this happens, powerful electromagnetic fields around the atoms can cause them to change into different elements.

The machine can create about 89,000 gold atoms every second,

I know, I know. We’ll be glittering beings, richer than God, with hats and shoes and mattresses all made of gold.

but each atom only exists for a tiny fraction of a second before breaking apart.

Ah. Bugger.

And I suppose there’s the small matter of the electricity bill, running costs, maintenance, staffing, and so forth. Roughly $1 billion a year.

You may resume your dreary, humdrum lives, with mattresses made of foam rubber, springs, and polyester.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.




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