(March 17, 2024 at 11:13 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:(March 17, 2024 at 10:45 pm)Foxaèr Wrote: There are no naturally occurring processes that produce new gold
You forgot the qualifier “on earth”.
But even that qualifier may not be enough to make the statement strictly true, because there are laboratory processes which bombard atoms of mercury or another nearby element with neutrons to create atoms of gold, and such process can conceivably be replicated in nature, albeit under rare circumstances.
I see. So a process to naturally form gold on Earth is conceivable but rare (even though there is no known mechanism by which this could take place), but dragons are right out. How selective of you.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson