Bitcoin’s rise and fall to date already makes it one of the greatest market bubbles in history. In turbulent times, some have suggested it as a substitute for gold, but it lacks some vital attributes.
Section of a tumor observed with an optical microscope. The two white forms with brown borders are blood vessels. Inside, gold nanoparticles accumulate against their walls.
Mariana Varna-Pannerec (ESPCI)
Gold can be used to make jewelry, but also to fight cancer. Several clinical trials are currently underway in the United States where patients are being treated with gold nanoparticles.
This 2013 photo shows Bitcoin tokens at a shop in Utah. What does the future hold for the volatile cryptocurrency?
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The fate of Bitcoin’s fate is highly unpredictable and dependent on what governments will do in the future.
JCF Johnson’s, Euchre in the bush, circa 1867, depicts a card game in a hut on the Victorian goldfields in the 1860s.
Oil on canvas mounted on board, 42.0 x 60.2 cm.
Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ballarat
The discovery of gold in California 170 years ago was a turning point in global history. The gold rushes are not mere historic footnotes – they continue to influence the world in which we live today.
The precious metal is literally extra-terrestrial, produced in the heart of the stars. How and under what conditions? Scientists know more thanks to a double astrophysical observation.
The Great Mosque of Djenné, in Mali, has a history dating back to the 13th century which can inspire regional trade in West Africa.
Shutterstock
You may have imagined the blockchain would lead to a world without governments or institutions veryifying transactions, research shows that it probably won’t.
Illustration of hot, dense, expanding cloud of debris stripped from the neutron stars just before they collided.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
Until the recent observation of merging neutron stars, how the heaviest elements come to be was a mystery. But their fingerprints are all over this cosmic collision.
Modern chefs are serving up ice cream, cakes, even sushi covered in gold. But gold in food came into its own in late medieval Europe, when eating gold wad thought to be virtuous, and one could find gilded whole roast peacocks.
Mining company Banro closed artisanal mining sites like this one in the DRC.
USAID U.S. Agency for International Development/Flickr
New financial innovations and products are constantly being touted as the safe haven of the future. But physical gold has properties that will cause it to stick around.
Gold torc found in Staffordshire.
oe Giddens/PA Wire/PA Images