https://futurism.com/the-byte/gold-nuggets-formed-electricity
Electric discharges underground cause gold atoms to accumulate, which eventually forms gold nuggets, the researchers suggest.
Humanity was not responsible enough with bitcoin to learn how to turn electricity into actual gold. Some nerds going to start setting up Tesla coils in caves soon.
I mean... actual gold isn't crazy valuable these days, is it? It's used in quite a bit of electronics for its corrosion resistance and conductivity IIRC.
Gold prices have risen steadily for a long time, partly because of its use in electronics. Over $2500/ounce now. But another quirk of gold is the ease with which we can make very thin coatings of it over other materials, sometimes only a few atoms thick. So it is commonly used, but in very very small amounts per device.
The main reason to electroplate things in gold is that corrosion resistance.
The thinner the coating, the better. Mostly because gold isn't a very good conductor.
Copper is one of the best conductors available. But the corrosion is the problem. It's nonconductive.
Also a fun fact. Stainless steel is a better conductor than gold. But gold is slightly easier to use in electroplating.
I think you might want to do a little digging in your undergrad science books:
The units of electrical conductivity are measured in siemens per meter (S/m). Here’s the electrical conductivity of a few metals:
Stainless Steel: 1.0 - 1.5 × 10^6 S/m
Aluminum: 3.77 × 10^7 S/m
Copper: 5.96 × 10^7 S/m
Gold: 4.52 × 10^7 S/m
Silver: 6.30 × 10^7 S/m
In this list silver has the highest conductivity, and stainless steel the lowest conductivity.
If someone works out how to make gold cheap. Then the current value of all gold will collapse and there were be a huge supply of shit that's been covered in dust in a vault for 100 years.
Most of the gold's price comes from it being used in jewelry and as an investment. Less than 7% of gold is used by the tech industry
https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-industry-sector-share/
Well, that is the amount gold that is mined or recycled every year that is used in electronics. The thing is though, a lot of the gold used in electronics is never recovered. So a considerable amount of the gold used in electronics is removed from from circulation in a way the gold in jewelry or bullion or coins isn't. It isn't the primary driver of gold's price increase, but it is a significant factor.
Okay, for a second, I thought that somebody had figured out how to make gold in a lab, which would then obviously bring down the price dramatically, because it would no longer be a super precious metal.
We can make gold in a lab, it has been done. Let us just say there is a reason those who want $$$$ to build another super collider are not talking about making gold in them.
I'm feeling like a star. They can't stop my shine. I'm loving cloud nine my heads in the sky.
We've known how to turn lead into gold for ages, you just add a couple of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Long story short: Uses a fuckton of energy, not worth it.
Fun fact: When Ernest Rutherford and colleagues put together the first paper about their findings they avoided the word "transmutation" like the plague. It has been considered impossible since before alchemy became chemistry and even though he was publishing in physics chemists would probably still have had his head.
Nuclear energy is more expensive than renewable so not really, no. Having a good combination of starting materials to minimise the amount of energy you need to fuse everything together, or even starting out with something heavier, would be the way to go.
For more details ask a nuclear physicist of which I'm not one. Honestly there doesn't seem to be much work on it.