Can't you make elements out of elements

[Karimspencer]

Can't you take a proton out of a mercury atom for example so the atomic number can change from 80 to 79 so it can become a gold atom?

 

[Integral]

Sounds good, now what kind of tweezers do you use to grab a proton?

 

[Karimspencer]

Very funny but can't you use nuclear binding energy...

 

[Vanadium 50]

As tweezers? How?

 

[Karimspencer]

So are you saying it's impossible...

 

[Antiphon]

It called transmutation. It's 60+ years old now in the lab, maybe 80 years old on paper.

 

[D H]

It called transmutation. It's 60+ years old now in the lab, maybe 80 years old on paper.

Exactly. This is after all the technique used to create elements that have never been seen before.

There's one catch: It's expensive. Massively expensive. The cost of creating gold via transmutation exceeds the value of the gold by many, many orders of magnitude.

 

[Karimspencer]

Oh ok that's pretty interesting..