Energy startup Marathon Fusion claims to have found a scalable way to turn mercury into gold, but they still have much to prove.

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.

  • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.caEnglish
    13·
    2 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.

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      I would assume that this would lead to a rise in mercury mining instead of cleaning up Mercury contaminations, because that would probably be cheaper. And I don’t think mercury mining is any less toxic than gold mining.

    • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

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