Tag: technolgoy

Scientists mimicking the Big Bang accidentally turn lead into gold

Medieval alchemists dreamed of transmuting lead into gold.

Today, we know that lead and gold are different elements, and no amount of chemistry can turn one into the other.

But our modern knowledge tells us the basic difference between an atom of lead and an atom of gold: the lead atom contains exactly three more protons. So can we create a gold atom by simply pulling three protons out of a lead atom?

As it turns out, we can. But it’s not easy.

While smashing lead atoms into each other at extremely high speeds in an effort to mimic the state of the universe just after the Big Bang, physicists working on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland incidentally produced small amounts of gold.

Extremely small amounts, in fact: a total of some 29 trillionths of a gram.

How to steal a proton

Protons are found in the nucleus of an atom. How can they be pulled out?

Well, protons have an electric charge, which means an electric field can pull or push them around. Placing an atomic nucleus in an electric field could do it.

However, nuclei are held together by a very strong force with a very short range, imaginatively known as the strong nuclear force. This means an extremely powerful electric field is required to pull out protons – about a million times stronger than the electric fields that create lightning bolts in the atmosphere.

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“He Was Definitely Murdered”: Watch Sam Altman Squirm As Tucker Grills Him Over Whistleblower Death

In a tense exchange on the Tucker Carlson Show, Carlson grilled OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the shocking death of whistleblower Suchir Balaji, an AI researcher whose explosive allegations of copyright violations had rocked the tech giant

Balaji, an Indian-American AI researcher who had worked at the forefront of artificial intelligence development, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November 2024, just weeks after blowing the whistle on OpenAI’s alleged copyright violations in their AI training processes.

The medical examiner ruled it a suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, with no evidence of foul play discovered at the scene. Yet Balaji’s grieving family, backed by prominent public figures and growing public scrutiny, is demanding a full FBI investigation, alleging murder and a systematic cover-up designed to silence a dangerous whistleblower.

Carlson kicked off the explosive exchange by zeroing in on Balaji’s whistleblower claims and his sudden, mysterious demise that has left many questions unanswered. “So you’ve had complaints from one programmer who said you guys were basically stealing people’s stuff and not paying them, and then he wound up murdered. What was that?” Carlson pressed, his tone dripping with skepticism and barely concealed accusation.

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