Dhaka, Oct. 10 -- Medieval alchemists spent lifetimes chasing the impossible dream of turning lead into gold.

Physicists at the world's most powerful particle accelerator have now done it -- though the result is far too small to see, let alone spend.

Researchers working on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland have produced gold by stripping protons from lead nuclei during high-speed collisions.

The total yield: around 29 trillionths of a gram.

The science behind it is straightforward in principle, if staggering in practice, according to The Independent.

Lead and gold differ by just three protons -- remove exactly three from a lead atom, and you have gold.

The challenge is doing it.

Protons sit insi...