Researchers accidentally turned lead into gold inside the Large Hadron Collider while conducting experiments mimicking the Big Bang. | Hashem Al-Ghaili

Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have succeeded in transforming lead into gold, fulfilling an age-old alchemical dream using modern physics. The ALICE team achieved this by colliding lead nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The resulting electromagnetic fields caused three protons to be ejected from the lead atoms during close encounters, thus creating gold. Between 2015 and 2018, 86 billion gold atoms—about 29 picograms—were produced in this way, at a rate of 89,000 atoms per second.