User:Jeremygbyrne/Gold

The role of gold in the Alchemy Cycle is a prominent one, both symbolically and actually.

History
Gold has a wonderful array of conspiracies surrounding it, eg.


 * http://www.mineweb.net/columns/american_notes/336075.htm
 * http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E7515CEE-880E-492F-B225-A94E21D90D2B.htm
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbug

and its pan-cultural significance make it a natural part of any half-decent Secret History of Humanity.

Unfortunately, apart from some vague ideas about nanotech gold extraction from seawater (which, even using near-future technologies, will apparently cost significantly more in energy than the value of the metal) I wasn't sure of how to integrate it into the central plot until I read about gold superatoms, and linked them to forteanic "monoatomic white gold" and thence to the philosopher's stone.

Also: Gold Mining at Sea The mining of river outlets becomes very big in the late noughties.

Alchemistry
Perhaps sulfur is a neutron grabber (it has many stable heavy nuclides), and it strips neutrons from Hg-198 to form Hg-197, which decays (half life 64 hrs) to Ag-197 (ie. common Gold).

Random notes follow
Of course, the dinosaurs had this technology from the trilobites (which the Amazonian Mind describes to Douglas Monroe in Astrology as "the old ugly old things in the sea") in the form of Sonoluminescence.

Since 1968 the price of gold on the open market has ranged widely, with a record high of $850/oz ($27,300/kg) on 21 January 1980, to a low of $252.90/oz ($8,131/kg) on 21 June 1999 (London Fixing). Prices have risen to the $420/oz ($13,500/kg) mark in 2004, due to a depreciation of the US dollar (an inverse relation between the prices exists to a certain extent). The price of gold has remained relatively constant in currencies not tied to the US dollar; for example, it has not varied by more than 10% from €330/oz (€10,600/kg) or A$560/oz (A$18,000/kg) during this time.

How could it be that the ancients faked conversion of Mercury into Gold by the action of the Philosopher's Stone, when it is actually Mercury that is the only element convertible into gold?


 * Colloidal gold, produced using the Alchemists's favourite Aqua Regia, is surely part of the solution to the mystery. (Mentions elixir.)


 * Sodium citrate


 * The Golden Calf: why does Moses grind up the calf, mix it with milk and feed it to the Israelites?


 * Gluten, a protein found only in late-model crops like wheat, barley, rye etc., opens gaps in the gut wall, to increase absorption of foreign matter (leading to immune problems).