First time? Specifically for the LHC maybe.
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Yeah, haven't we turned lead into gold before? (A few atoms, not the most stable isotope)
How is this a "first"?
This isn't the first time. They've done this before, and it's well documented. It's also irradiated, if memory serves.
Any sources?
Probably.
So... Not really?
And for 1000000 times the cost of normal extraction probably.
The goal isn't to come up with an economical way to produce gold. Read the last 2 paragraphs
But consider the last several hundred years of alchemy.
I know.
To be fair, we could probably do a lot better if we purpose-built a machine to make gold. And Pb->Au isn't even likely the most ideal path. That was only chosen to fulfill the ancient alchemy dreams.
They have had greay success at turning gold into less gold.
For a split second. The creator was also immortal