From Crucible to Collider: The Alchemical Dream of Turning Lead into Gold

In the modern era, alchemists are often seen as eccentric figures, fraudsters with a mystical flair, associated more with deception than with science. In the public imagination, they are remembered as cloaked men in dimly lit laboratories, mixing unknown substances in the hope of producing gold from base metals or discovering the elixir of immortality. But this view, though evocative, is misleading.

Those who have studied alchemy in depth know that behind the veil of esotericism and cryptic symbols lies the very seed of modern science. The alchemists were, in truth, the first pioneers of chemistry and physics. With their empirical experiments, philosophical reflections, and keen observation of nature, they began—albeit in a confused and often naive way—to lay the foundations for what would become the scientific method. True, they lacked rigor and systematic validation. But they never lacked curiosity, nor ambition.

Who among us doesn’t remember studying their (failed) attempts to obtain the legendary philosopher's stone? Or more famously, their forbidden dream of transmuting lead into gold?

And yet, today, that dream seems to have come true. Not in a candlelit cellar, but at the heart of CERN, the most advanced subatomic research facility in the world.

The CERN Experiment: Turning Lead into Gold, for Real

In the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, scientists observed a truly astonishing event: the actual transmutation of lead into gold. This was not a chemical reaction, but a nuclear-level process, achieved through ultra-high-energy collisions between lead nuclei.

In these "almost collisions," the powerful electromagnetic fields cause the nuclei to shed protons. When a lead nucleus (82 protons) loses three, it is left with 79: the atomic number of gold. This phenomenon is known as electromagnetic dissociation.

Between 2015 and 2018, the experiment generated roughly 86 billion gold nuclei. However, these atoms are highly unstable and decay almost instantly. The actual amount of gold produced was microscopic: just 29 picograms. In the LHC’s third operational phase, performance improved, producing over 89,000 gold atoms per second.

From Utopia to Physics: But at What Cost?

Technically speaking, alchemy has become reality. But with one major caveat: this process holds no economic value. The energy required, the complexity of the setup, and the fleeting nature of the product make it utterly impractical for industrial purposes.

Still, from a scientific perspective, the achievement is monumental. It confirms theoretical predictions about nuclear structure and helps scientists better understand ion loss mechanisms, contributing to the design of future accelerators and technologies.

The Alchemists’ Lead: Intuition or Symbolism?

A lingering mystery remains: why lead? Among all metals, why did the alchemists choose lead—a heavy, gray, seemingly worthless substance—as the starting point for transmutation?

The answer is also symbolic. Lead represented imperfection, raw matter, the “prima materia” to be purified. It was associated with Saturn, time, and death. Gold, in contrast, symbolized perfection, the essence of the sun and divine illumination. Their transformation represented the journey from darkness to light, from death to rebirth, from the flawed human to the enlightened sage.

But perhaps there is more to it. Perhaps in their insistence on the transformability of matter, the alchemists had stumbled upon a deep intuition: that elements are not immutable. A heretical idea for their time—yet today, thanks to nuclear physics, it is scientific fact.

From Myth to Science—and Back Again

CERN hasn’t produced commercial-grade gold, but it has recreated an ancient dream that would have been seen as magic by a 13th-century alchemist. And yet, it is physics. Science has achieved what was once mere myth.

Maybe we should stop scoffing at alchemy, and instead look back with gratitude. After all, every dream, even the strangest one, may contain the seed of a discovery. And every myth, beneath its symbolic shell, may conceal a sliver of truth.