Physicists Take Close Look at Gold’s Atomic Value : Science File / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment.

All that glitters may not be gold, but gold is the most “noble” of all metals. It refuses to react with gases and liquids, which is one reason it can hang around for thousands of years in musty tombs and still shine brightly for those anthropologists (or pirates) lucky enough to stumble upon it. But exactly what makes gold so standoffish (and hence valuable) has been something of a scientific mystery. In the current issue of the journal Nature, two physicists from Denmark and Japan suggest that the electrons buzzing around the gold atom’s periphery overlap each other in ways that keep other atoms at a distance. This same orbital dance allows gold atoms to hold onto each other with a grip sufficient to keep other atoms from breaking them apart.