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Chapter
Chapter
Introduction
DOI link for Introduction
Introduction book
Introduction
DOI link for Introduction
Introduction book
ABSTRACT
Medieval alchemists tried making gold in their crucibles and failed – unless they’d put gold in at the beginning. Today we can take a copper atom, atomic number 29, a tin atom, atomic number 50, and push them together very quickly. This makes gold, atomic number 79. To do this all you need is a large hadron collider, a particle accelerator. At CERN, Geneva, the alchemical vessel is a tunnel of magnets and hardware, 27 kilometres long and 4 metres high. It cost over 3 billion pounds. A gold tooth filling made here might ruin a Sheikh. It is possible, but it isn’t necessary or wise. Appropriate technology is a key theme in our book. What discourse do we need to turn leaden experience to creative gold?
