Top 10 Treasures Demonstrating Unexpected Facts About Gold
10 Fool’s Gold Contains Genuine Gold
Tell me about Fool’s Gold.
The mineral pyrite gets its moniker from how beautifully it imitates the genuine article. And for ages, the conventional wisdom held that pyrite was worthless since it did not contain any gold.
Standard microscopes are unable to detect the minute quantity of gold present in pyrite. Nevertheless, due to its abundance, fool’s gold still has the potential to be a valuable resource for the gold industry once more efficient extraction methods are developed.[1]
9 Absolutely Massive Stolen Gold Bar
HUGE Gold Nugget It wasn’t until 1981 that the Aztec “from the Conquistadors’ Sad night” withdrawal from 1520 was uncovered.
While excavating a building site in Mexico City in 1981, one worker discovered a large bar of gold. The priceless artifact weighed about 4.25 pounds (1.93 kg) and had a weathered, pitted appearance. The bar seemed like it had been there for a long time and was rather large, thus it was probably Aztec gold that the Spanish conquistadors melted down.
After realizing an Aztec uprising was imminent on the evening of June 30, 1520, the Spanish snatched up all the gold they could find in Tenochtitlán (now known as Mexico City) and fled. However, a number of Aztec artifacts perished when one of their ships went down. The discovery of the bar in the now-dried-up canal where the ship went down further strengthened the theory that it had been on board the fatal ship.
The year 2022 was the year that scientists finally managed to prove it. Similar to other gold items found in Tenochtitlán’s main temple, this bar’s testing revealed a chemical makeup of about 76% gold, 21% silver, and 3% copper.[2]
8 Piece Golden Dental Bracket Set
Orthodontics: From Straightening Marie Antoinette’s Smile to the Present Day
Among the French nobility of the 17th century lived Anne d’Alègre. Her brief existence was filled with tension, even though she moved in higher circles. After losing two spouses and an adult son, she fled to safety while her estates were seized by Catholic soldiers, despite being a Protestant. At the age of54, she passed away in 1619.
In 1988, archaeologists found her coffin and noticed that she had wires attached to her teeth. Scientists didn’t discover the cables were gold until x-rays were obtained in 2022. She may have suffered from severe periodontal disease as a consequence of her challenging life, as revealed by the scan. The idea of a high-society Frenchwoman letting her loose teeth fall out was too much for her, so she had them bound with gold wires.
Although not flawless, the dental work was revolutionary for its day. At regular intervals, the braces had to be adjusted, and in order for the wires to pass through, certain teeth had to be drilled. Her otherwise healthy teeth became unstable, and she probably suffered from chronic, severe agony as a result.the third
7 Ants’ Nests Are Treasure Holes
Oh, there’s gold in Ant Hills? Conducting experiments! You Can See It in the Pan.
The economy of Australia is highly dependent on the country’s mineral resources. The nation receives $86 billion annually from resource exports, including gold. But wait, there’s an issue. The mineral deposits on the surface of Australia have all been found. Deeper exploration is now required, but conventional methods, like as drilling, are costly and ineffective.
It could be helpful to use an unusual way of prospecting. In 2012, researchers in the West Australian goldfields published a study detailing their discovery of ant and termite mounds with high quantities of gold. Insects collect fragments of the valuable metal as they make their way through their homes’ subterranean tunnels.
Locating big mineral resources underground can be improved by discovering nests that store gold. The method is less wasteful and less harmful to the environment than just throwing darts at the ground in the hopes of finding gold.[4]
6 Honey Enhances Wine Aroma
Chemistry Life Hacks: Restoring Musty Wine
A major issue has arisen within the wine sector. People have used words like “rubber” and “rotten eggs” to describe the awful scents produced by some winemaking techniques. Few people will purchase wine if it has an unpleasant aroma, therefore this is terrible for sales. Toxic copper sulfate is often added by the industry as a cure, although this is far from optimal.
Recent research out of Australia has shown an improved method for eliminating the odor. They put certain strips covered with gold specks through their paces using wines that were heavy in volatile sulfur compounds, the culprits behind the unpleasant aromas. Amazingly, after a day of soaking the strips in the wine samples, as much as 45 percent of the sulfur compounds were extracted.
In addition to being fast, non-toxic, and environmentally benign, the golden filtering method may be applied all through the winemaking process by coating equipment and packaging with gold nanoparticles, which could further reduce sulfur.[5]
5 This Bacteria Devolves Into Gold
Get to Know the Bacteria That Makes Money by the Ton
Introducing Cupriavidus metallidurans. Small gold nuggets are excreted by this goober when it eats harmful metallic substances. It was in 2009 that the peculiar capability of the bacteria was uncovered. Nobody could fathom how they pulled this off without losing a limb when it happened. In 2018, after nine long years, while being studied by a group of specialists from around the world, the bug finally revealed all.
Bacteria thrive in an environment where many other kinds of life would perish, a world where hydrogen and harmful metals abound. The poisonous chemicals, which include gold and copper, quickly penetrate the bacteria and absorb into their bodies, where they could cause serious harm.
Nevertheless, C. metallidurans possess a clever defense mechanism. To lessen the metals’ impact on their cells, they employ a specialized enzyme. It is called CopA and it makes it tougher to absorb copper and gold. In this way, the bacteria are able to expel any undesired materials—in this case, gold nuggets—and reduce the amount of metals that enter their internal workings.[6]
4 Sewage Is Rich in Minerals
Does Human Feces Contain Any Gold?
Thinking about sewage for too long is something no one likes to do. However, it has captivated a number of scientists. Why? Simply said, sewage sludge is a very valuable resource.
Sludge is the byproduct of treating wastewater, storm run-off, and industrial effluent. The presence of metals in this muck has long been known, rendering approximately half of it unusable as fertilizer and rendering it unfit for discharge into rivers.
In their pursuit of a solution, experts conducted a more thorough analysis of the garbage and found that it was also rich in valuable metals. There is sludge in a metropolis of one million people that might be worth eight to thirteen million dollars. Numerous valuable metals, including millions of dollars’ worth of gold, silver, titanium, copper, palladium, cadmium, manganese, and more, were discovered in samples taken from all around the United States.
Why, therefore, are dung heaps brimming with riches fit for a dragon’s lair? People not consuming these metals and then passing them on in their urine is not to blame. The mining, electronics, jewelry-making, and automotive industries are the most common sources of the compounds that get up in sewers as a result of industrial operations and disposal.[7]
3 Real Events Provided the Foundation for Jason’s Myth
In search of the legendary Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts set off on an epic quest.
According to Greek mythology, the famous Golden Fleece was held by the Colchis Kingdom and Jason was given the responsibility of reclaiming it. The fictitious trip was supposedly inspired by a true journey that occurred 3,300 to 3,500 years ago, according to researchers. Travelers on this journey came across settlements in the Svaneti area of Georgia, close to the Black Sea (where the Colchis Kingdom was situated). The local tradition that gave rise to the Jason tale was visible to them here.
The locals didn’t have to resort to using pick axes to mine the gold that lay in the neighboring mountains. The gold poured into rivers as a result of erosion, and the villagers would drop sheepskins into the water to act as “filters” and collect the valuable flakes as they floated downstream. The myth of the Golden Fleece was surely nourished by these fleeces that were stuffed with gold.
The fact that this mining technique was never abandoned is quite remarkable. This area’s inhabitants have been mining streams for gold using sheepskin for thousands of years.[8]
2 Galvanized Metal It’s Genuine Gold!
Gold Nugget Crafted from Plastic, 18 Karat!
The opulence and sophistication of gold jewelry is beloved by many. Jewelry, watches, and other accessories are crafted from the precious metal in abundance. The material is heavy, which is a downside despite the fact that gold accessories are still very trendy.
Perhaps a creative group of researchers will find the solution. In 2020, they managed to imbue gold with flexible qualities while retaining its 18-carat purity. The development of a material with properties of both gold and plastic allowed for this accomplishment. Despite the difficulty of the production procedure, the end product is superb. This substance is flexible enough to be molded into any shape you can imagine, shimmers like real gold, sounds like plastic when it hits the floor, and is five to ten times lighter than regular gold.
“Plastic gold” has a wide range of potential uses, including but not limited to electronics, radiation shielding, chemical catalysis, and more comfortable jewelry and watches.[9]
1 This Alchemist Grew Rich from His Fate
A Drunk Astronomer’s Revolutionary Impact on Science
Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 and gained fame for a number of reasons. A moose was his pet. Because he had lost his real nose in a duel, he wore a prosthetic nose. Brahe was so rich that he owned one percent of his home country, Denmark. The Danish astromer and alchemist was making his rounds across Europe by the time he was 30 years old.
Compared to modern humans, Brahe possessed 20–100 times more gold in his system in 2016, according to a number of hair samples. Excessive exposure to the precious metal, particularly in his final two months of life, was determined by the study. Brahe was well-off enough to purchase a bar of gold whenever he wanted it, which was crucial for his alchemical operations. However, how did it get into his system?
In the affluent circles he frequented, gold was plentiful. As was fashionable in Renaissance Europe, Brahe may have consumed it when his silverware scraped against the golden embellishments on his plate or when he intentionally put gold to his food or wine. Maybe he ate it while performing alchemical rites. No one will ever know for sure how Brahe died with all his gold in his pockets.[10]
