<ul><li>Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland accidentally turned lead into gold while smashing lead atoms into each other.</li><li>To transform lead into gold, the scientists fired beams of lead nuclei at each other at near-light speeds to create a powerful electric field that pulls out protons.</li><li>The lead nuclei, when narrowly missing each other, release protons due to the huge electric field, converting some lead atoms into gold atoms.</li><li>The production of gold at the collider is seen as a nuisance as the transformed nuclei collide with the walls, leading to a decrease in beam intensity over time.</li></ul>

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider turned lead into gold—by accident

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