Let the jews make the play and all go crazy in the process. I always knew Mercury was weird shit, but yeah - there's 7 stable isotopes as follows
Isotope Occurrence 196Hg 0.15% 198Hg 10.0% 199Hg 16.9% 200Hg 23.1% 201Hg 13.2% 202Hg 29.7% 204Hg 6.82%
200 appears to be the one used in the periodic table, but 202 is the most prevalent. The desired isotope - 198 - makes up only 10% of naturally occurring Mercury, so a separation scheme will be required. It's pretty volatile, so maybe a distillation scheme would work. Okay, we got that worked out. Got a spare Tokamak reactor so we can commence operations and help refill Ft. Knox?
The fun part will come when they admit that it was not pure and the gold came from it being "saturated". Part of how you get metals out of old computer parts (gold, silver, platinum) is to dissolve it in mercury and to separate it.
I know someone that did that to a couple of old mainframe's and got a few ounces of each. I would not advise you to do this if you don't know what you are doing unless you want to be mad (insane) as a hatter.
Ok you can source and operate the mercury retort then, and I'll work on the Tokamak.
I always knew Mercury was weird shit
What makes you say this?
Principally because it's a liquid under ordinary conditions, but shouldn't be. Ever "play" with it chemically? Fun stuff - and toxic. Can evaporate it at one temperature, and re-condense it at a slightly higher temp if conditions are right. It dissolves some other metals - familiar with amalgams?
Chilled some slowly in a liquid nitrogen bath once and grew enormous crystal lattices - hollow shells with well defined edges (roomie was a chemistry grad student back in the day and had access to the entire research lab). Mercury does all kinds of shit that theoretically it shouldn't. You can probably find a YT vid that will do a better job of explaining it.
Looking at that isotope distribution in elemental mercury, it's like it's a hybrid. Might help explain it's weirdness.
Principally because it's a liquid under ordinary conditions, but shouldn't be. Ever "play" with it chemically? Fun stuff - and toxic. Can evaporate it at one temperature, and re-condense it at a slightly higher temp if conditions are right. It dissolves some other metals - familiar with amalgams?
Chilled some slowly in a liquid nitrogen bath once and grew enormous crystal lattices - hollow shells with well defined edges (roomie was a chemistry grad student back in the day and had access to the entire research lab). Mercury does all kinds of shit that theoretically it shouldn't. You can probably find a YT vid that will do a better job of explaining it.
Looking at that isotope distribution in elemental mercury, it's like it's a hybrid. Might help explain it's weirdness.
I don't know much about chemistry, but something about mercury as always struck me as suspicious and untrustworthy.
Outside of the obvious facts that is has a lustrous liquid-metal allure, and is notorious for being a heavy metal that bio-accumulates and eventually causes madness, or the fact that it was named after the Romanization of the Greek God Hermes...
Something about the fact that it will readily, and greedily, form amalgams with all forms of precious metals, but staunchly rejects iron, reminds me of the old Irish legends, about how Faeries were always rumored to have an aversion to iron.
It strikes me as a metal with malicious and trickster-like qualities, a metal that desperately wants to get into your body somehow.
But that's just me personifying things too much.