Olympic Gold Medalists Die Earlier (than Silver Medalists) [new study]

When it comes to Gold and Silver medalists in Olympic Track and Field events between 1896 and 1948, then : “Contrary to conventional wisdom, winners die over one year earlier than losers.” That’s the result of a new research project conducted by Professor Adam Leive of the Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy, University […]

“The Gold Bug” [fictional], and the real bug that accumulates gold

In 1843, Edgar Allen Poe wrote a fictional story called “The Gold Bug,” about a bug made of gold. In 2012, Aaron Stewart, Ravi Anand and Jens Balkau wrote a scientific treatise about termites that accumulate gold in their nest: “Source of anomalous gold concentrations in termite nests, Moolart Well, Western Australia: implications for exploration,” Aaron D. […]

How gold wedding rings go missing abrasively

A gold wedding band symbolises permanence, but bits of it disappear as a marriage endures, scraping against the marital skin every moment that metal and finger convene. Georg Steinhauser, a chemist at Vienna University of Technology, calculated how much goes missing, how quickly and at what cost. Steinhauser’s study, Quantification of the Abrasive Wear of a Gold Wedding […]