Electric discharges underground cause gold atoms to accumulate, which eventually forms gold nuggets, the researchers suggest.
  • dugmeup@lemmy.worldEnglish
    301·
    2 months ago

    First fracking now large amounts of electricity to be pumped underground too!

  • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    263·
    2 months ago

    Humanity was not responsible enough with bitcoin to learn how to turn electricity into actual gold. Some nerds going to start setting up Tesla coils in caves soon.

    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      91·
      2 months ago

      I mean… actual gold isn’t crazy valuable these days, is it? It’s used in quite a bit of electronics for its corrosion resistance and conductivity IIRC.

      • jmiller@lemm.eeEnglish
        18·
        2 months ago

        Gold prices have risen steadily for a long time, partly because of its use in electronics. Over $2500/ounce now. But another quirk of gold is the ease with which we can make very thin coatings of it over other materials, sometimes only a few atoms thick. So it is commonly used, but in very very small amounts per device.

          • chaogomu@lemmy.worldEnglish
            62·
            2 months ago

            The main reason to electroplate things in gold is that corrosion resistance.

            The thinner the coating, the better. Mostly because gold isn’t a very good conductor.

            Copper is one of the best conductors available. But the corrosion is the problem. It’s nonconductive.

            Also a fun fact. Stainless steel is a better conductor than gold. But gold is slightly easier to use in electroplating.

            • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
              6·
              2 months ago

              I think you might want to do a little digging in your undergrad science books:

              The units of electrical conductivity are measured in siemens per meter (S/m). Here’s the electrical conductivity of a few metals:

              Stainless Steel: 1.0 - 1.5 × 10^6 S/m
Aluminum: 3.77 × 10^7 S/m
Copper: 5.96 × 10^7 S/m
Gold: 4.52 × 10^7 S/m
Silver: 6.30 × 10^7 S/m

              In this list silver has the highest conductivity, and stainless steel the lowest conductivity.

          • jmiller@lemm.eeEnglish
            41·
            2 months ago

            Well, that is the amount gold that is mined or recycled every year that is used in electronics. The thing is though, a lot of the gold used in electronics is never recovered. So a considerable amount of the gold used in electronics is removed from from circulation in a way the gold in jewelry or bullion or coins isn’t. It isn’t the primary driver of gold’s price increase, but it is a significant factor.

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
    23·
    2 months ago

    Okay, for a second, I thought that somebody had figured out how to make gold in a lab, which would then obviously bring down the price dramatically, because it would no longer be a super precious metal.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      251·
      2 months ago

      We can make gold in a lab, it has been done. Let us just say there is a reason those who want $$$$ to build another super collider are not talking about making gold in them.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      We’ve known how to turn lead into gold for ages, you just add a couple of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Long story short: Uses a fuckton of energy, not worth it.

      Fun fact: When Ernest Rutherford and colleagues put together the first paper about their findings they avoided the word “transmutation” like the plague. It has been considered impossible since before alchemy became chemistry and even though he was publishing in physics chemists would probably still have had his head.

        • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Nuclear energy is more expensive than renewable so not really, no. Having a good combination of starting materials to minimise the amount of energy you need to fuse everything together, or even starting out with something heavier, would be the way to go.

          For more details ask a nuclear physicist of which I’m not one. Honestly there doesn’t seem to be much work on it.

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    111·
    2 months ago

    Libertarians about to get off on having gold mines in their garages.