# Monoatomic Gold...what's it supposed to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811 "2008-05-27T21:38:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/1 "2008-05-27T21:38:41Z")
A friend of mine (the same one who talks about colloidal silver) was telling me all about the almost magical benefits of monoatomic gold this weekend. I’ve looked it up on the web but most of the cites seem along the same lines as the colloidal silver ones. So…what’s the StraightDope on this? What is it exactly and what is it supposed to do. And what does it ACTUALLY do, if anything? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/2 "2008-05-27T22:00:11Z")
It has an amazing power. It takes money out of your pocket and puts it in someone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Internut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Internut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Internut)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/3 "2008-05-27T22:08:00Z")
I have some if you’d like to buy it… It costs three times the amount of regular gold and due to its different arrangement of atoms it looks remarkably like copper… But man… This stuff can do ANYTHING! ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/4 "2008-05-27T22:08:42Z")
It’s polyatomic bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/5 "2008-05-27T22:25:33Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] monoatomic gold [/QUOTE] Is this plain old _regular_ monoatomic gold, or Orbitally Rearranged Monoatomic gold? What with having the shape of a banana, nature’s most perfect fruit, the later is endowed with [Spiritual Powers](http://www.crucible.org/monatomic_elements.htm). Has your friend turned blue yet? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/6 "2008-05-27T22:32:18Z")
It’s a floor wax, and a dessert topping. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/7 "2008-05-27T23:56:16Z")
I would be very interested in any scientific studies that genuinely proved they had monoatomic gold as I understand it. The smallest gold nanoparticle that I am aware of is Au[sub]13[/sub]. That would be 12 gold atoms in a dodecahedron shell and one atom in the chewy center. 13 is the first “magic number” in nanoparticle technology. Gold has a huge tendency to agregate in solution, so the ability to produce genuinely monoatomic gold would be nothing short of a technical marvel as far as I know. At least if we are talking about Au(0). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/8 "2008-05-28T00:01:34Z")
The ads that this thread is attracting are for ‘monatomic’ gold, not ‘monoatomic’ gold. Possibly ‘monatomic’ is a word of their own devising. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/9 "2008-05-28T00:03:46Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] Possibly ‘monatomic’ is a word of their own devising. [/QUOTE] They are both accepted spellings. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/10 "2008-05-28T00:14:24Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Has your friend turned blue yet? [/QUOTE] 😛 No he hasn’t…he claims that you only turn blue ‘if you use it wrong’. I showed him the thread I made on colloidal silver (and the article Cecil recently did), but he wasn’t having any of it…thinks ya’ll are part of the conspiracy by the drug companies keeping this wonder solution from the masses. He does concede that the kind you buy over the counter is worthless…the only REAL way to do it is make it yourself (it looks a bit like swamp water to me) and drink it as soon as it’s made (I guess it doesn’t keep or something). Anyway, I assumed monoatomic gold was the same kind of snake oil…what I wanted to know is, like with colloidal silver, what’s it SUPPOSED to do…and like in the CS thread, what side effects does it have? I assume it doesn’t turn your skin yellow… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Internut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Internut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Internut)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/11 "2008-05-28T00:53:08Z")
Let us know how he turns out, would you? I’m thinking back to the guy that turned himself blueish gray by drinking lots of silver nitrate, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/12 "2008-05-28T00:59:53Z")
So now that Colloidal Silver has been exposed, we’re moving onto this Monatomic Gold. When that gets busted, do we go to Platinum, or Paladium? And what screwball terminology will be used with it? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/13 "2008-05-28T01:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] When that gets busted, do we go to Platinum, or Paladium? And what screwball terminology will be used with it? [/QUOTE] First one, then the other. For a while, dichroic polycrystalline platinum will be all the rage, but will eventually be overshadowed by viscoelastic triamorphous molecular palladium which is clearly better because it has THREE adjectives. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/14 "2008-05-28T01:48:10Z")
Or some esoteric isotope of Selenium, seeing as they are all loonies. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/15 "2008-05-28T02:33:06Z")
A seach on Google scholar shows quite a few hits: [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v89/i18/e186402](http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v89/i18/e186402) [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v83/i19/p3884\_1](http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v83/i19/p3884_1) and more. But I see nothing on potential health benefits. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/16 "2008-05-28T02:45:17Z")
That’s why I was kind of hoping some 'dopers knew. I did a search myself and didn’t see a lot on it health wise. My friend seemed to be under the impression it’s the greatest thing since crystal. The way he was describing it is it’s sort of like some kind of nano-technology, able to repair damaged DNA, increase life span, health and for all I know the size of your cock as well. He was going on and on about it and so I figured since I was just sitting here today in a hotel room I’d ask here in GQ and see what folk around here know. While the thread has been amusing so far it hasn’t really answered the questions I’m asking. Does anyone know of what it’s SUPPOSED to do? And assuming one takes it what it would ACTUALLY do? -XT ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/17 "2008-05-28T02:57:03Z")
I just want to know what the heck they are calling monatomic (or monoatomic) gold. Coloidal silver at least exists in my general scientific understanding. As far as I know the physical properties of genuinely monotomic gold would be nothing short of phenomenal. Now, naqnoparticles aren’t my specialty, but from what I understand the quantum effects of gold nanoparticles considerably larger than monatomic are a major focus of modern research. To be able to isolate large quantities of stable isolated atoms of gold sounds like it would be worthy a cover of _Nature_ or _Science_ to me. Thanks for the titles **DrDeth** , they confirm my suspicions. If you’ll notice they are ab initio/DFT computational papers on the theoretical possibilities of monotomic gold structures. In other words, according to these papers, these things are not even remotely a physical reality yet. [QUOTE=Q.E.D.] First one, then the other. For a while, dichroic polycrystalline platinum will be all the rage, but will eventually be overshadowed by viscoelastic triamorphous molecular palladium which is clearly better because it has THREE adjectives. [/QUOTE] With a little help, we could popularize rehybridized diamond as an ancient technique to remove biological contaminants. We could even produce literature that demonstrates it’s properties as long as they don’t know what activated carbon is. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/18 "2008-05-28T03:00:32Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Does anyone know of what it’s SUPPOSED to do? [/quote] Pretty much anything, depending on which particular crackpot you’re addressing at the time. [QUOTE=xtisme] And assuming one takes it what it would ACTUALLY do? [/QUOTE] Nothing. Zip. Nada. Jack squat. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/19 "2008-05-28T03:08:46Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Jack squat. [/QUOTE] Nope- _gold_ squat. It’d likely pass right through your system and make your BM all shiney. 😛 WarmNPrickly- you’re welcome. Anyone want some quote from those papers? Pretty dull. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/20 "2008-05-28T03:13:18Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Does anyone know of what it’s SUPPOSED to do? [/QUOTE] Dons tin foil hat and dives into bits of the web that rational folk wisely avoid… > [@](#): > > Reports have indicated health benefits including: huge boosts in mental & physical energy, increased deep cellular health, improved nutritional assimilation, spiritual growth, elevated mood & anti-depression, strengthened immune system, vanished aches and pains, increased mental clarity and focus, greater strength & stamina, increased libido, fat loss & lean muscle gain, and more youthful appearance and vitality. > [@](#): > > -Astral Travel- > > With extended use people report entering deeper meditations and the abitlity to actually control what they do in dreams (space travel, fly at any time, dimensional shift, etc.). Researchers suggest this is because you’ll be using a higher percentage of your brain while raising your vibration during and after your experiences. For most the long term benefits (higher awareness, sharper thought, easier mind net navigation, etc) are the real reasons that people seem to gravitate toward monatomics. As the demand increases and as this knowledge becomes more readily available to the rest of the populous, these monatomics are destined to be a major factor in our future as a civilization. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811.md?page=2)