Last week, Marathon Fusion, a San Francisco-based energy startup, submitted a preprint detailing an action plan for synthesizing gold particles via nuclear transmutation—essentially the process of turning one element into another by tweaking its nucleus. The paper, which has yet to undergo peer review, argues that the proposed system would offer a new revenue stream from all the new gold being produced, in addition to other economic and technological benefits.

  • Kokesh@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Why do we try to turn things into gold? The price of gold would collapse if we succeeded, so wouldn’t it be completely pointless?

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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      15 days ago

      Who gives a shit about the gold price except for some idiots who think it has some inherent value beyond some applications in electronics.

    • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.ca
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      15 days ago

      I dunno. I would be cool with it if we stopped mining for Gold with all the environmental problems and found a way to profitably clean up the mercury from past gold mining and places like Grassy Narrows with extensive mercury poisoning.

      • Kokesh@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        That would be great. But what I’m talking about is the collapse of the price of gold.