WEBVTT - How do you make gold? 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.400 Daniel, you were wish you'd studied a more practical science. 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.560 What do you mean, I think you know what I mean? 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.360 You study? You mean, should I have studied something that 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.200 has actual practical applications that could help people in their 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.200 everyday lives. Yeah, you know, something that saves people's lives 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:26.279 for example, or you know, or turned lead into gold. Well, 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.600 those are great examples because those are the two things 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.680 that particle physics actually does do. I thought turning lead 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.800 into goal was alchemy, you know, a pseudoscience from hundreds 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.279 of years ago. It used to be pseudoscience, but now 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.960 we have made it real science. Particle physics can actually 0:00:42.000 --> 0:01:01.000 do this, but as always there's a catch. Welcome to 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.280 our podcast This is Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.000 a production of My Heart Radio, in which we look 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.720 all around the universe and try to find fascinating little 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.399 nuggets of intellectual gold, or turn mysterious nuggets of intellectual 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.160 lead into nuggets of understandable intellectual gold. That's right. We 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:24.360 are podcasts alchemists turning bad jokes into comedy gold. That's right. 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.280 We turned the mysterious into the understandable. Physics can do anything. 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.039 We still haven't figured out teleportation or anti gravity or 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.560 warp drives or um, you know, how to make my 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.199 internet actually go quickly? Still a mystery for me for sure. 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.720 Here at my house. We'll probably figure out teleportation before 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.120 we figure out fast internet at home. Yeah, which one 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:46.880 is more impossible? I don't know. If I could just 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.760 teleport the data from Netflix to my TV, I wouldn't 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:51.880 need the Internet. Maybe that is how they do it, 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.720 That's how they should do it. At least somebody over 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.760 at Netflix is pouring a billion dollars into their teleportation 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.720 department right now. So to be on the podcast, we 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.000 are tackling a topic that used to be considered magic 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.760 hundreds of years ago. Right, alchemy, This idea that you 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:12.840 can transmute or transform one element into a totally different element. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:14.800 That's right, And that was back in the day when 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.680 they thought that what we consider the elements were the 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.799 fundamental building blocks of the universe. You know, they were like, here, 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.359 we found these things that make up everything, and you 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.800 combine them in different ways to make cool stuff. But 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:27.680 they seem to be sort of the basic building blocks. 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:29.800 They hadn't yet broken them up and found the smaller 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.440 bits and so it made sense that people were like, well, 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.639 is it possible to change one kind of thing into 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:36.880 another kind of thing? Because you know, one kind of 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.919 thing like lead, you can find it not to without 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.720 much difficulty, and it's not that valuable, while other kinds 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.720 of things like tremendously valuable. So it seemed appealing not 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:48.519 just from the economic point of view, but from the 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.920 sort of deep understanding point of view, like can we 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.000 turn one thing into another kind of thing? To be 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:59.560 on the burg and we'll be talking about how do 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.160 you make gold? How do you make the shiny golden 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.160 stuff that everybody, every human seems to want for some 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:10.320 weird and almost arbitrary reasons. That's right, well, that's economics, right, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.919 it's all arbitrary. And it's not just about how do 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.000 we make gold or how could you make gold? Or 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.000 could you fabricate gold in your garage? But it's like 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.960 how does the universe make gold? Like where does gold 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.880 come from? Right? What was it created during the Big Bang? 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.720 Is it made in the core of the earth. Is 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.480 it all made the lab of somebody somewhere in Europe, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.080 you know, underground somewhere, or is there some other mysterious 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.440 process How is gold made? Are we going to be 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.640 selling gold making kids at the end of this podcast, Daniel, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.520 you could probably make a lot of money. Just be 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.400 a box of lead with some instructions that say, Step one, 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:49.120 race a quadrillion dollars. Step two, build a particle collider. Done, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:52.760 we have a particle collider. You just need to apply 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.600 for time at the large age on collider. So yeah, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.960 we'll send you a lump of gold and instructions for 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.800 how to get to CERN. Step one, apply fill out 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:07.080 this application. Yeah, first send us and you'll get these 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.760 incredible items. Technically it would be a real thing like 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.560 it is, actually the steps of how to make gold. Yeah, 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.760 you really can. I think it's sort of cool that 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.160 we have understood the way the universe works, the sort 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.960 of elemental understanding, to a point where we do see 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.080 how these things are put together. We can understand them 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.080 from the ground up. You know, how to assemble protons 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.920 and neutrons and what makes something gold and something else. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.160 Led to the point where we can actually change them 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.520 from one to the other. I mean, it's not economically feasible, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.000 but we do have the power. We have conquered this 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.120 barrier of the elements Yeah, Well, why do you think 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.200 humans are so fascinated with gold, like, out of all 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.440 the elements? Why? Why? Why is gold too special in 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.760 human culture? I think I have to refer to a 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.840 comment made by my good friend and wise comic, who said, 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:55.240 humans like sparkly things. That's something my grandma always used 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.440 to say. Why is it every time you say something 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.799 sort of wise, you just attribute it to your grandma? 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:05.240 She was a wise woman. I think it's just your humility. 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.600 You don't want to come off sounding like you think 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.120 your intelligence you should be this to this fictional grandma. 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:11.479 I think I just don't want to reveal that I 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.680 have no idea where I got that quote. Let's so 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:21.440 anonymous becomes Jorge's grandma. Yeah, so people like shiny, sparkly things, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.000 and that's what gold is. Right. It doesn't staying right, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.599 it doesn't rust when you make something out of goal. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.760 It just always stays shining right. That's what's special about it. Yeah, 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.120 of course, And the other special thing is that it's rare. Right, 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.159 you don't find a lump of goal under every rock. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.320 It's not in lots of places, and so because it's 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.080 hard to get, that makes it valuable, right, but it's 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:43.800 sort of this weird thing. I mean, my kids ask 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:45.920 me this question, like why is gold cost so much? 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.520 And it really is just you know, something we've all 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.080 decided on. You know, It's this weird thing I never 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.679 really understood about economics, is that the value of something 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.440 is really just what people are willing to pay for it. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.520 So we all decided that, you know, something else was 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.479 better than gold, and we were willing to pay for it, 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.400 and we would have created this enormous wealth, right right, Yeah, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.359 Welcome to the new podcast Daniel and Jorge explain economics. Dane, 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:13.760 Orge are clueless about economics and pontificate ignorantly. Now, but 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.080 there is something special about gold itself as a metal, right, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.960 It is shinier than most other elements, right, and it 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.120 doesn't rust, and it's it's easy to make smooth. Right, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.600 It's something there's something special about it. Yeah, it's malleable 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.760 in this cool way, you know, but it's it's still arbitrary. 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:30.640 It's you know, it's like beauty, right, it's just what 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.360 we decide. We think it's cool, we think it's interesting, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.440 and we think it looks good and jewelry and stuff. 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.040 You know, why is gold so much more valuable than silver. 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.560 You know, it is more rare, and people do like 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.480 it more, but it holds a special place. You know, 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.919 do you think it's somehow related to our evolution to 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.599 sort of like sunlight and you know, shiny light and 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.359 gold that particularly gold color. Oh man, I think that 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.359 whole field of science is bologna. Is like attempt to 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.800 evolutionary psychology, like this attempt to say like maybe we 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.680 act this way because it could have been preferential and 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.880 the savannah or something like. I think that you can 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.040 you can explain almost anything using that kind of logic. Well, anyway, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.400 so it's rare on Earth, and that's an interesting question. 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.280 Why is it rarer? And how do you how is 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.280 it made? And could we make it here in the 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.600 lab for example? Yeah, exactly, and h you know, if 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.640 you start thinking about like where this stuff comes from, 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.480 you might wonder like how does this stuff all get made? 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.120 You know, how did things begin? You know, did was 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.280 all the stuff in the universe made in the first 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.679 bill a second you know, made during the Big Bang? 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.600 Or would the big bang just make hydrogen and everything 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.480 else gets assembled later? These are really fascinating questions and 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.480 it's the kind of thing that really it's just sort 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.840 of the kind of puzzle that scientists can use to 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.360 understand the mechanisms of the universe, Like what's going on 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 in the universe. Can we explain how much hydrogen there is, 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.080 and how much iron there is, and how much of 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.200 this there is. It's a huge amount of really specific 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.400 data that helps us understand what's going on in the universe. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.800 We let's just build models to try to explain what 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.000 we've seen. And because the data is so specific, there's 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.320 so many different elements and we can measure their abundance. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.160 It gives us a lot of handles for understanding like 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.440 what's going on inside stars and inside other astrophysical objects. Oh, 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.280 I see. It's kind of a question of did all 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.360 the ingredients for the universe that we see around us 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.720 right now? Was that all there from the beginning at 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.200 the Big Bang? You know, that everything that we need 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.960 to make the universe as it is now get created 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.520 in those first few moments, or that the universe get 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.520 created one way and then the ingredients of a change 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:36.760 over time exactly. And it's just part of this larger 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.760 question of do we understand what's around us? You know, 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.080 we look around us and we see, okay, we've see 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.280 this this stuff. Do we understand how it got there? 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.200 So we try to tell a story, you know, we 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:47.880 want to make sure that the story makes sense. Do 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.120 we know how the story began? Do we understand why 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.880 went this way not the other way? And so, as 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:54.640 a part, it's been like a hundred years we've been 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.400 trying to piece this story together to explain why we 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.640 see what, you know, the stuff we see in the universe, 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.560 and where it is. Can we understand it? So it's 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.600 a pretty big question. And so today on the podcast, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.880 we're talking about one specific thing, which is gold, and 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.000 so we were wondering how many people out there know 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.960 where gold is made or how it's made. I walked 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.080 around the campus you see, Irvine, and I popped this 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.440 question to a bunch of unsuspecting students or whoever else 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.880 would happen to be around campus that day, and I 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.680 asked them where do you think gold is made? So 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.320 before you listen to these answers, think for yourself for 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:29.280 a moment do you know where gold is made? And 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.000 if you get the r answer right, you get a 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.320 gold star right, or a lead star or a lead 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.160 star and an application form. Well, here's what people had 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.400 to say. Maybe in the sun on another planet, I'm 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.920 not sure won't be in like fusion in the center 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.960 of Yeah, I'm not sure. I would say a big 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:56.920 bang like in the Earth's crust through collision. Uh. I 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:02.120 have no idea chemically or physically like whatever happens within 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:09.640 the core, like gold aliens, like the species after dat, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.800 it's just naturally rotted and it becomes gold. Alright, A 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.320 lot of interesting answers, and honestly, they all seem kind 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.679 of plausible to me. You know, some people said that 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:23.520 gold is made inside of the Earth at the core, 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.760 the core of the Earth, or inside of stars or 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.440 the first ones you mentioned. The ones people said maybe 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.200 it was made inside the earth. That puzzled me for 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.880 a bit until somebody said, you know, kind of like diamonds, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.000 and then I realized, yeah, that's true. Diamonds really are 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.640 made inside the earth. Is the pressure of the Earth 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.679 on carbon the core that that creates these these incredible crystals, 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:47.679 And so it is plausible to think, like you know, 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.480 jewels and gold, maybe they're just made in high temperature 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.640 reactions inside the Earth. So I understood the line of 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.760 thinking after a bit. Yeah, because it's it's also kind 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.800 of a rare and valuable thing, and maybe people a 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.560 shid rare and valuable with the things taking a long 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.000 time to make an extreme conditions. Yeah, and like many 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:15.439 plausible ideas, it's totally wrong. No gold start for you, exactly. Well, 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.200 let's let's get into this idea of gold. What do 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.280 we know about gold? Well, it's shiny and it looks 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.600 good on your finger. Um, But the think the thing 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.360 to understand is that gold is one of the elements, right, 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.640 And the identity of these elements is determined by how 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.040 many protons there are in the nucleus. So remember every 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.920 everything that's elemental is just an atom, right, It's not 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.000 a mixture of different elements. It's it's just an atom, 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.400 and the atom has a nucleus insided and the nucleus 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.480 has protons and neutrons. And the thing that determines the 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.880 identity which element you are? Are you hydrogen, are you helium? 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.839 Are unickel? Are you uranium? Is the number of protons 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.360 in the nucleus, right, Because all these elements they're not 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.640 they're all just variations of the same thing, right, Like 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.520 different combinations of the same thing. Right, used to me 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.199 that we used to think that carbon and oxygen there 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.520 like its own thing in the universe, but actually turned 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.800 out that they're just the same thing, just rearranged differently. Yeah, 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.520 and it's it's more about the numbers. Like, you take 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.080 one proton and one electron, you get hydrogen. Right, you 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.040 add another proton and another electron to balance it out electrically, 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.840 and you get helium. And so it's just the number 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.160 of servings you get, right, that determines which element you are. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.439 And you're right, it's fascinating that these things aren't fundamental 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:33.520 but there are just made out of the same things, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.120 but they're so vastly different. Right, Iron is totally different 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.840 from helium. It's totally different from silicon, from carbon, from oxygen, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.640 but all these things are made up of the same stuff. 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:45.840 This is the kind of thing I blows my mind 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.480 every time I think about it, that the the critical 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.080 identity of these things comes not from what they're made 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.400 out of, but just from the arrangements of the particles 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.280 inside them. Yeah, it's kind of like if you think 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.360 about like your favorite recipe of your favorite kind of food, right, 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.920 Like it's you add a lot of ingredients into it, 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.640 but really at the end, all of those ingredients are 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.679 probably just carbon and hydrogen, right, that's true. I don't know. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.560 I would say the critical issue for baking is whether 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.360 or not includes chocolate. Includes chocolate, it's going to be tasty. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:19.480 Otherwise it's a question mark. I don't know. Hast chocolate. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:24.160 It's golden wins the gold star. And so the thing 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.400 about gold is that it's pretty heavy, right. It has 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.480 a lot of protons in the nucleus. Right, So as 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.280 you add a proton to a nucleus, it gets heavier 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.079 and heavier, and you walk your way up the periodic table. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.920 And as an aside, did you start with hydrogen? Right? 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.720 You start hydrogen is like the simplest atom is just 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.800 one proton and one electron, That's right, That's the first 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:45.640 thing you would make. And that's the first thing that 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.880 the universe did make in fact, and still it's what 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.240 most of the universe is. Most of the universe, like 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.560 seventy four percent of the universe is hydrogen. And uh. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.240 And then then the reason is that it's the simplest thing, right, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:00.960 But as you walk your way the periodic table, you 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.280 add a proton, you get more and more complex stuff. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.080 And this is how we knew that there were gaps 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.600 in the periodic table. Right. We we said, okay, we 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.199 see this element, we see that element, we see the 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.520 other element. We can measure how many protons there are 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.000 in the nucleus of an element, and then we put 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:16.960 them in place, and then we could tell oh, look 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.680 there's nothing with you know, this number of protons. How 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.000 can we haven't found anything with that number of protons. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:23.960 So we go look forward and we try to make 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.440 it or this kind of stuff. It's it's cool that 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.000 the identity of the elements determined just by the number 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.160 of protons. Yeah, until you start with hydrogen, and then 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.600 you add a proton and you get helium, and then 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.080 you add another proton, and it just you go up 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.920 up the list of elements and at some point you 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.560 get to gold. Right, that's right. And you know, there's 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:45.920 a hundred and some elements that we've discovered or created 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.240 by now, and each one is so different and their 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.600 properties are determined really just by how many protons, which 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.040 determines how many electrons you need to balance it, and 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.760 then how those atoms interact, so like why are some 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:58.960 of the metallic and some of them are conductors, and 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.840 some of them are really active and some are inactive. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.880 All of that is determined just by how the electrons 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.520 fill out their orbitals, right, whether they like to interact 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.080 with other atoms or not, And that in turn is 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.720 determined by how many protons are in the nucleus. So 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.480 it's really just proton counting. So you're saying gold is 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.920 really just like a fat hydrogen. It's like a crowd 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.480 of hydrogen. Yeah, it's just a cluster of a hydrogen 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:24.960 and the kind of right, And but then then that 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.400 really changes its behaviors. It totally changes this behavior. And 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.080 it's the other thing I understand is that it's not 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.560 easy to do, right. It's not that you can just 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.480 very easily take two hydrogen atoms and make helium out 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:38.800 of them. And the reason is that the nuclei don't 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.160 like to hang out together. The nuclei nucleus of hydrogen 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.320 atom is a proton which is positively charged. So they're 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.000 going to repel each other. And we had a whole 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.400 podcast episode about this recently. How does this happen? And 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.960 you know, they will repel each other unless you force 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.720 them together. You get them close enough together, the strong 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.880 nuclear force takes over and then it attracts the quarks 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.400 inside those proton on to tract each other, and they 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.680 overcome that. We call that the Coolomb barrier because Coolumb 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.920 is the guy who first thought about electromagnetic force electrostatic 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.000 forces that repel each other. Yeah, I hear. He was 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.200 a cool guy. Yeah, but there were some barriers to 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.320 getting to know him. But it's like they snapped together, right, 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:17.480 Like they repel each other, but at some point they 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.720 get so close that they snapped together and they become 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.600 a different element. Yeah, you can think of it's sort 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.760 of like, um, hiking into a volcano. Right, You're walking 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.640 up the hill and it's getting harder and harder and harder. Right, Um, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.600 it's steeper, and the sizes are getting steper and steper 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.720 and steeper. It's it's easier to roll down away from 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.280 the center of the volcano, but once you get to 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.000 the top, right, it's very easy to just like fall 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.160 into the center. And so it's sort of that way, 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.080 and then you die a horrible death, right, or you 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.400 fuse beautifully into something new. Right, you rise out of 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.280 the ashes like a phoenix something else than beautiful. Um. Yeah, 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.000 So you push them together hard enough, and that's what 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.960 we call fusion. You you get the strong nuclear force 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.280 to take over and it makes a new nucleus, right 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.320 and it and it becomes something totally different. So this 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.400 is alchemy, right, changing one element into another. Turns out 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.680 you just gotta push hard enough, you know, or take 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.160 protons out, and you can change what something is. Okay, 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.239 So that's how you make gold. You take hydrogen and 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.280 you just keep building it up and at some point 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:13.159 you go through all the elements and you get to 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.480 the shiny stuff. Right, that's right. But that's not easy 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.240 to do, right, you. It's really hard to squeeze these 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.639 things together. They don't like to be together, right, It's 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.000 not a configuration they like. So the question really is 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.399 not how do you make gold, but like, where in 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.160 the universe does this happen? How is it even possible? 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.080 All right, let's get into that, and let's start with 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.200 a big bang. But first let's take a quick break. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.439 All right. We're talking about how to make gold, and 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.680 so we know how to make it, which is you 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.479 you build up hydrogen atom up until you get into 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.159 the different elements and eventually you get to gold. But 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.240 it's a pretty extreme process, like you need a lot 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.439 of energy. That's right, you really do need a lot 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.760 of energy. Um. It's not something that's easy to do. Um. 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.359 And as usual a little with a hard physics question, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.320 Let's start with the Big Bang, right, because the creator 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.800 of all things. Right, And you might think, well, the 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.000 Big Bang, that was pretty hot and dense, and so 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.600 maybe all that stuff was just made in the very beginning, yeah, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.320 because everything was compressed, and so I would think maybe 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.320 a lot of gold was made in the Big Bang. Yeah, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.320 but it takes a while to get the gold right, 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.800 and so, and the Big Bang turns out was pretty short. 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:30.879 You know, there was on a whole lot of time 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.119 there to make stuff. The when the Big Bang started, 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.000 it was really hot and dense. But also remember it 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.680 was expanding really fast, right, that's the bang part of it. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.480 And so the universe started out really hot and dense, 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.840 but it cooled off pretty quickly. The temperature dropped very rapidly, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.439 so there was actually only about twenty minutes. I mean, 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:49.639 I think it's kind of hilarious to talk about earlier 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.320 universe in terms of like minutes you know, in days 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:53.719 and stuff like that. It's not like there was an 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.560 Earth on the Sun back then to even create these 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.600 the meanings of these time units. But after about twenty 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.520 minutes after the Big Bang on somebody's watch, the universe 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.200 cooled down so that this kind of fusion wasn't possible anymore. 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.520 So the things that were made in the Big Bang, 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.119 of course, we're fundamental particles, you know, corks and electrons 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.359 and stuff like this, and the corks came together to 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.040 make protons, and the protons electrons found each other to 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.360 make hydrogen, and there was a little bit of time 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.639 left and they could make some helium and a few 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.679 bits of trace elements higher up to like brillium or 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.240 maybe boron and stuff. But really the Big Bang was 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.040 all about making hydrogen and helium. You're saying kind of 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:31.879 like the party was over before they could make gold. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.320 They wasted a lot of time dancing, and then they 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:36.800 ran out of time at the end and they hadn't 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.520 really finished their homework. Yeah, kind of right. That's that's 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.240 what you're saying, is that it was intense in the 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.240 Big Bang, but then by the time that you would 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.119 get to making gold, everything was already spread out and 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.080 cooled off. Yeah, and the thing that blows my mind 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.600 the most is that the story hasn't really changed after 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.600 twenty minutes. Twenty minutes into the universe, the universe was 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:01.400 seventies five percent hydrogen and twenty five fish percent helium. 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.919 And that's basically the story now. I mean, there's like 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.280 one percent left over that's like other heavier stuff and that, 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.159