Most lead turned into gold

In 1980, the reknowned scientist Glenn Seaborg (USA, 1912-1999) transmuted several thousand atoms of lead into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (USA). His experimental technique, using nuclear physics, was able to remove protons and neutrons from the lead atoms. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold from lead, but his work is the closest to the mythical Philosopher's Stone. There are also unconfirmed reports from 1972 that a team of nuclear physicists in Russia accidentally discovered a method for transmuting lead into gold when they found the lead shielding had turned to gold in an experimental nuclear reactor. No figures are available for this report.