Seaborg’s Midas touch

The idea of turning base metals into gold has captivated people for thousands of years. But while the mythical substance capable of producing such a transformation might remain elusive, modern science has come up with its own version.

In 1980, Glenn Seaborg, the US scientist and Nobel prize winner, turned several thousand atoms of bismuth, a metal with similar properties to lead, into gold.

Seaborg’s technique was far too expensive to enable the routine manufacturing of gold. But his work is the closest we’ve gotten to achieving the mythical effects of Harry Potter’s Philosopher’s Stone.

Discover more about real alchemy and the synthesis of precious metals.