Why did gold become the standard for money? Why not copper or platinum or argon? A chemical engineer explains. An element must meet four qualities to stand alone as a premium currency, Sanat Kumar, ...

Every atom has an atomic number, which refers to the number of protons in its nucleus (its centre). The lightest atom, hydrogen, has the atomic number 1. A gold atom has an atomic number of 79, and a ...

For thousands of years, gold has played an outsized role in how societies store value. It has been minted into coins, shaped into jewelry, and treated as a symbol of wealth and power across cultures ...

Certain elements (gold, silver) haven't gone out of fashion in millennia and probably never will. Others seem unlikely ever to win popularity with the public (hello, praseodymium). Still other ...