The ALICE analysis shows that, during Run 2 of the LHC (2015–2018), about 86 billion gold nuclei were created at the four major experiments. In terms of mass, this corresponds to just 29 picograms (2.9 ×10-11 g). […] While the dream of medieval alchemists has technically come true, their hopes of riches have once again been dashed.
I mean, we still can’t turn a ring of lead into a ring of gold, but this is really neat.
Also we’ve basically made the dreams of alchemists a reality. Still in the proof of concept stage but it’s now safe to say the idea of turning less valuable stuff into gold isn’t as crazy as it initially sounds.