So if you have turned a lead atom into gold, how do you know? In the ALICE experiment, they use special detectors called zero-degree calorimeters to count the protons stripped out of the lead nuclei.

The only difference between a lead atom and a gold atom is three protons. Lead has 82, gold has 79. So, in theory, stripping three protons from a lead nucleus should result in gold.

A lead nucleus emits an intense electromagnetic field. In near-misses, a reaction known as electromagnetic dissociation can occur. The lead atom's nucleus vibrates and ejects three of its protons ...

Physicist Persis Drell has been appointed director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Program, the first woman ever to serve at the helm of the famed high-speed atom smasher. Drell, a professor of ...

The researchers used this as the basis for an atomic clock, involving a single atom. While their accuracy was much less than modern atomic clocks built on other principles, it marked an important ...

The most common isotope of lead, Pb-208, which is frequently used for experiments, contains 82 protons and 126 neutrons. Physicists know that the size of the skin correlates with the size of the atom.

To make the atom chip, Reichel’s team deposited two parallel gold wires, each 50 micrometres wide, onto the surface of a chip just under two centimetres across. The team confined a gas of rubidium ...

So if you have turned a lead atom into gold, how do you know? In the ALICE experiment, they use special detectors called zero-degree calorimeters to count the protons stripped out of the lead nuclei.