Chemists strike gold, solve mystery about precious metal’s properties

Predicted, actual energy needed for ionization now match

gold nugget

GOLD MINE  Chemists have finally explained two of gold’s properties: the energy involved in removing or adding an electron to a gold atom. New theoretical calculations match up with values measured in experiments.

Rob Lavinsky/iRocks.com/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Gold’s glimmer is not the only reason the element is so captivating.