Discover the Midas Touch: Top 19 Fun Facts About Gold You Never Knew!

1. King of Metals

It may not shine in chemistry class, but gold still gets the royal treatment: able to resist most chemical reactions, this noble metal can be dissolved by aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid, making it the "king of metals" among alchemists, while also forming salt-like compounds when it achieves the Au- ion due to its electron affinity.
Source => webelements.com

2. Cosmic Collisions & Gold

Forget the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—it turns out, the real treasures come from cosmic collisions way above our heads: Binary neutron star mergers are responsible for producing heavy metals like gold and platinum, with more of these metals being produced in such mergers than in those between a neutron star and a black hole over the last 2.5 billion years, helping scientists better understand heavy metal production rates and the age of distant galaxies.
Source => news.mit.edu

Did you know silverware can actually fend off werewolves? Uncover the ancient belief behind silver's mythical powers against evil and its effectiveness in neutralizing lycanthropic infections. 🌕🐺✨

=> Fun Facts about Silver

3. Olympic "Gold" Medals

Talk about a silver lining! Athletes from around the world, shedding blood, sweat, and tears in the pursuit of a lustrous "gold" medal: But did you know that Olympic gold medals are actually made up of at least 92.5% silver, with only a mere 6 grams of pure gold? Holding an intrinsic value of just around $758, these prized tokens are nonetheless invaluable in the hearts of champions.
Source => nytimes.com

4. Gold & Optical Coating

Feeling shiny and reflective? Channel your inner gold and you might just become the perfect candidate for an optical coating: Gold's unique properties make it ideal for use in anti-reflective designs and interference filters, reflecting an impressive range of light from 600nm to the IR spectrum—beat that, polycarbonate astronaut visor!
Source => escooptics.com

5. High Notes of Goldsmiths

Goldsmiths must be a hoot at karaoke, always striving for those high notes: Believe it or not, an astonishingly tiny amount of gold – just one gram – can be hammered into a sheet as thin as 100 nanometers, a thickness that's a thousand times less than a strand of human hair, allowing it to be shaped into incredibly intricate and delicate designs for jewelry and ornamental marvels.
Source => techiescientist.com

6. Platinum's Flexibility

If platinum were a circus artist, it would put tightrope walkers to shame with its flexibility and ability to stretch: In fact, one gram of platinum can be drawn into a wire so long, it could run laps around a Ferrari's Platinum-enhanced catalytic converter, extending for several kilometers and still dazzling in its various applications such as jewelry, electrical contacts, and automotive swankiness.
Source => xometry.com

7. Space Rock Showers

If bling is your thing, thank a space rock shower for Earth's glittering stash: Research from the University of Bristol found that gold reserves on Earth are the result of a meteorite bombardment that occurred over 200 million years after the planet's formation, showering our mantle with precious metals, including gold, in amounts tens to thousands of times more abundant than anticipated.
Source => phys.org

8. Cleopatra's Jewelry Cleaner

Ever thought about what Cleopatra would use to clean her jewelry? Imagine a mixture so powerful, it makes gold go "au revoir" and secretly saves Nobel prizes from Nazis: Aqua regia can dissolve gold thanks to its unique blend of nitric and hydrochloric acid, making it essential for refining gold to 99.999% purity and useful in deep cleaning tubes for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Source => edu.rsc.org

9. Edible Gold & Silver

Who needs a gold star when you can eat gold, too? From ritzy cocktails to swanky sushi rolls, gold and silver make your food gleam like a disco ball from the '70s: Edible gold and silver, biologically inert and regulated for purity, safely add a touch of luxury to dishes without any toxic effects, requiring a minimum of 90% (21.6 carats) gold and 99.5% pure silver, respectively.
Source => goldchef.shop

10. Green Agents of Cleanup

Who knew plants had a license to clean? Shaken, not stirred, these green secret agents, Lindernia crustacea, Digitaria radicosa, Paspalum conjugatum, and Cyperus kyllingia are infiltrating gold mines with one mission in mind: Accumulating high levels of mercury and cyanide in their roots and above-ground parts, these undercover plants aid in phytoremediation, the green technology method of cleaning up pollution caused by heavy metals at contaminated sites, according to a West Java study.
Source => sciencedirect.com

11. Fool's Gold Doppelganger

Gold diggers, beware of the sneaky doppelganger lurking in the shadows, with a glimmering grin: Pyrite, aka "Fool's Gold," may be full of false promises, but it can actually signal the presence of real gold deposits – even hiding the precious metal within its deceitful self, proving useful to the mining world after all.
Source => thermofisher.com

12. Inca's Golden Sweat

Sweating gold like a champ at the gym: Contrary to popular belief, the Inca civilization thought of gold as the sun god Inti's sweat, not his tears, as a testament to the benevolence of their deity.
Source => study.com

13. Ancient Gold Rush

Who knew the Gold Rush happened billions of years ago and without any humans involved? Cosmic miners in the form of meteorites hit Earth's jackpot, giving our planet a precious metal makeover: Around 3.9 billion years ago, during a process called "terminal bombardment," meteorites bombarded Earth and enriched its surface with gold and other precious metals, debunking previous beliefs that gold solely originated from extraterrestrial sources.
Source => bbc.com

14. Golden Nanoparticle Uses

Behold, a golden ticket to healthier living: Gold nanoparticles boast a treasure trove of biomedical applications like genomics, biosensorics, immunoassays, and even laser phototherapy for cancer, all thanks to their unique physical and chemical properties, such as plasmon resonance.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

15. Gold's Puppet Master Powers

Like tipping the scale in favor of King Midas during a see-saw battle: gold has held humankind captive with its alluring powers throughout history – used as currency, wealth storage, and the occasional bad romance starter. Seriously folks: gold's value is influenced by supply, demand, inflation rates, and global economic stability, and even though it's no longer the #1 currency choice for our modern world, it still sneakily manipulates the worth of currencies across the globe like a puppet master. So, keep calm and Goldman Sachs on!
Source => investopedia.com

16. Tiny Gold Skyscrapers

What would you do if I told you that you could make a gold skyscraper with nothing but a tiny gold brick? Leave the "Midas touch" at home, because this is no myth: gold is so malleable that it can be hammered into gold leaf so delicate and thin that stacking 250,000 of these translucent sheets would only reach a mere one inch high, all thanks to its cooperative atomic structure that plays nice and lets its atoms slide past each other without breaking a sweat.
Source => homework.study.com

17. Gold: VIP in Medicine

Who needs a golden ticket when your body can welcome gold with open arms? This shiny metal is practically a VIP behind the velvet ropes of medicine: Gold is used for medical devices and implants such as orthopedic and cardiovascular devices, and even drug delivery systems. Plus, gold nanoparticles have potential in cancer treatment, and the metal has anti-inflammatory properties! Though generally biocompatible, individual reactions may vary, so healthcare providers should do their due diligence before rolling out the gilded red carpet.
Source => linkedin.com

18. Metallurgical Catwalk

Forget playing mixologist with drinks: gold prefers to strut its stuff on the metallurgical catwalk, making striking fashion statements with its besties copper, nickel, and zinc! The serious reveal: When gold combines with other metals, it creates stunningly different hues and finishes, like rose gold with copper, and white gold with nickel or palladium, allowing gold alloys to be shaped in countless ways, from delicate threads to lavish sheets.
Source => gemsociety.org

19. Peak Gold Party

Who says being "past your peak" is bad? For gold enthusiasts, it's the party of the century: Peak gold occurs when gold production falls behind rising demand, causing a supply deficit. The World Gold Council reported a 4% decline in production in 2020, with COVID-19 playing Grinch to the gold-mining operations. This shortfall was counteracted by recycling Aunt Bertha's gaudy necklaces, but with depleting reserves and fewer high-quality discoveries, gold prices might just host a private soirée in the stratosphere!
Source => mining.com