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.

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    12 hours ago

    LoL, why else would they be publishing a paper on the process rather than buying an absolute ton of mercury and manufacturing gold like mad?

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      Because they have to build a full scale reactor first. That’s expensive.

      The way this usually works is that you do the research, get a patent on it, license that out, and then capitalists pretend they invented the whole thing themselves and deserve all the profits.