5 Surprising Uses for Gold

Gold fever wasn't just a thing from DuckTales or the California Gold Rush. It's real, and it's still happening. Howdy, gold diggers. Trace here. Thanks for watching DNews today. Discovery's upcoming new series Klondike tells the story of the men and women who risked their lives to strike gold in the Yukon. But gold isn't just used to make coins and build governments. Gold resists corrosion. It's highly conductive, and it's highly malleable. If I took pure gold, a hammer, and an anvil, I could probably make gold leaf. It would feel like cloth, but it would be gold. You'll also see it, um, in space. Gold's reflective properties and ability to be super thin make it ideal to send to space for protection from the sun and the harsh environment out there. The Hubble Telescope contains layers of gold to keep it from corroding. Photos of the astronauts during spacewalks have gold visors designed to reflect cosmic rays. On the ground, they use gold leaf to cover the windows of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, because it reflects light and heat so well that it lowers their cooling bills. Plus, you know, bling. Gold is biocompatible, so you can actually eat it. My first shot in college had gold flakes in it. It was really gross. Gold is used in nanotechnology, because it resits bacteria and the body's defenses. At an atomic level, gold isn't actually gold in color. It can be crimson or light blue, and it has predictable reactions with certain proteins. Gold is already used to detect cancer cells, but a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found if you mix gold nanoparticles with tea and then drink it, the particles of each combine and latch onto and attack prostate cancer. What the what? It's not just nanomedicine. Pure gold attached to the underside of the eyelid will ease problems with people who have facial paralysis. The weight of the gold is a big help. Plus, when injected into joints, pure gold can ease arthritis. But we have no idea why that works. The University of Washington says injected gold can reduce swelling, damage, stiffness, and pain. Gold also protects the air we breathe. If you own a car purchased after 1975, it probably has a catalytic converter. They're designed to convert noxious gases into, well, less noxious gases. In 2011, a partnership with NASA and a company called Nanostellar reduced emissions by one fifth by using gold in the catalytic converters. Most cars use even more expensive metals in the converter, like platinum, so this is a big step. This wonder material detects and fights cancer. It protect astronauts and satellites. It cleans the air. It eases arthritis. But it also brings you DNews. Gold is used to make electronics better. Much like gold leaf, you can stretch pure gold into strands 10 to 200 microns thick. Microns! Those strands are used to bond materials inside computer chips. That's small, you guys. It's used on the macro level to protect conductors like copper or silver from corrosion, which is why those HDMI cables that you can get are super expensive. And that's stupid. Ugh, I buy the cheap ones for $2. No difference-- unless my TV was in space, maybe. This precious material is so damn useful. Maybe the Gold Rush was all worth it. You can watch the drama unfold and decide for yourself. Klondike premieres this Monday, January 20, at 9:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 Central, on Discovery. Can you think of some innovative new ways to use gold? Tell us some stuff from your brains below in the comments, and thanks a lot for watching, everybody. Stay classy, internet.