In the now distant 2001, a movie that revolutionized the entertainment industry hit theaters: harry potter and the Philosopher’s Stonebased on JK Rowling’s 1997 book of the same name, a masterpiece of the fantasy genre that marked the beginning of the film saga.
As its creator indicates, this is a fantasy story, which is not real, which is based on what is written in a book by a British author, so there should not be an object called a red philosopher’s stone, made by men with magical properties. TRUE?
According to canon, the philosopher’s stone could be used to create the Elixir of Life, which precisely lengthens the life of the drinker, just as it transforms any metal into pure gold. In real life, it is said that is a legendary alchemical substance that is capable of converting base metals, such as lead, into gold or silver.
In theory, there are similarities between what the magical series exposes and what has been studied by experts. But, Does Harry Potter’s Philosopher’s Stone Exist?
Scientists in China discovered the “philosopher’s stone”
A group of scientists in China, from the universities of Manchester and Tsinghua, have discovered lor more similar to this legendary substance that has been found before: graphene.
By adding graphene to a solution containing traces of gold, minutes later, pure gold appears on the graphene sheets, with no other chemicals involved in the process. Just by burning it, they were able to get the pure gold out.
The research, published in Nature Communications and cited on the website of The regionshows that one gram of graphene can be enough to extract almost two grams of gold.
Since graphene costs less than $0.10 per gram, this process can be very profitable, as the price of gold is around $70 per gram. It’s not Harry Potter’s philosopher’s stone, but boy, can it help give more life… or rather money.