# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/41 "2013-12-05T16:54:17Z")
So we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t? Sweet. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/42 "2013-12-05T17:07:39Z")
Well, FWIW, the friend of mine who sparked this thread (I had forgotten all about it to be honest) is still alive, and still taking the colloidal silver. He hasn’t turned blue yet. I’m not sure if he’s taking the monatomic/monoatomic gold still…he is no longer married to the seriously woo wife who got him doing most of this stuff, so I doubt it (though, as I said, he DOES still take the colloidal silver, and claims he hasn’t had a cold or the flu in years…though it’s funny, I see him sniffling just like everyone else :p). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/43 "2013-12-05T17:19:27Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Well, “monoatomic” is normally used for gases, but gold would have to be pretty darn hot to be gaseous. I’d recommend against inhaling it. > > Other than that, monoatomic (or monatomic) might mean “elemental”, which gold generally is anyway. As opposed to say oxygen, which is normally found as O2 molecules. > > Or am I missing something? As I see it, the term isn’t even sensible. The best kind of woo! \*Monoatomic \*means that there are too few atoms for the concepts of gas, liquid and solid to make sense - maybe a couple hundred at most. Thus they claim it’s a 4th phase of matter. So they claim they have this gold in very small bits - but then they have a lot of it - so it’s like a dust. Of course it’s bullshit, as are claims about its properties, but that’s what the meaning of monoatomic is. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/44 "2013-12-05T18:00:09Z")
XT: Well, I didn’t do anything special, and hadn’t had a cold or flu for years. I have a sinus/chest infection now, though. I guess whatever woo I was using stopped working. Or I did it wrong. Bup: got a cite for your definition? I find stuff that tends to agree with this, from [feedictionary.com](http://feedictionary.com): mon·a·tom·ic (mn-tmk) adj. 1. (Chemistry) (of an element) having or consisting of single atoms argon is a monatomic gas 2. (Chemistry) (of a compound or molecule) having only one atom or group that can be replaced in a chemical reaction 3. (Chemistry) a less common word for monovalent Or are you using the definition of monatomic used by the woo-ists? (If so, then never mind – I won’t expect it to make sense.) Wikipedia says > [@](#): > > In physics and chemistry, monatomic is a combination of the words “mono” and “atomic,” and means “single atom.” It is usually applied to gases: a monatomic gas is one in which atoms are not bound to each other. All chemical elements will be monatomic in the gas phase at sufficiently high temperatures. but goes on to say > [@](#): > > The only chemical elements which are stable single atom molecules at standard temperature and pressure (STP), are the noble gases. which rules out gold. So, when gold is in free elemental form, it’s not consideredd monatomic because of the electron sharing with all the other gold atoms? If not that, then what? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/45 "2013-12-05T18:01:52Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Well, FWIW, the friend of mine who sparked this thread (I had forgotten all about it to be honest) is still alive, and still taking the colloidal silver. He hasn’t turned blue yet. Well, if he does it’ll only be because he wasn’t doing it right, or wasn’t taking the Super-Special Virgin Organic Triple-Distilled colloidal silver. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/46 "2013-12-05T18:57:08Z")
I take a glass of homeopathic monoatomic gold preparation tap water every night and it’s been 100% effective at warding off the zombie apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/47 "2013-12-05T19:17:34Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Bup: got a cite for your definition? Well, I doubly suck. Here’s a 2nd-generation cite in a woo paper purportedly to _Scientific American_: > [@maybe Scientific American?](#): > > [Divide and subdivide a solid and the traits of its solidity fade away one by one, like the features of the Cheshire Cat, to be replaced by characteristics that are not those of liquids or gases. They belong instead to a new phase of matter, the micro-cluster. Micro-clusters consist of tiny aggregates comprising from two to several hundred atoms. > They pose questions that lie at the heart of solid state physics and chemistry, and the related field of material science. How small must an aggregate of particles become before the character of the substance they once formed is lost? How might the atoms reconfigure if freed from the influence of the matter that surrounds them? If the substance is a metal, how small must this cluster of atoms be to avoid the characteristic sharing of free electrons that underlies conductivity?](http://www.gsjournal.net/old/science/bermanseder8.pdf) However, the term there is _microcluster_, not _monatomic_, and it does indeed have to do with (at least the question of) if it’s small enough so that metals don’t share electrons. So never mind. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/48 "2013-12-05T19:23:55Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Well, if he does it’ll only be because he wasn’t doing it right, or wasn’t taking the Super-Special Virgin Organic Triple-Distilled colloidal silver. He rolls his own. Like I said before, it looks like swamp water to me. Pretty nasty. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/49 "2013-12-05T19:52:33Z")
I’m thinking of trying colloidal Polonium. That stuff has glowing reviews. ---
**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:** [December 5, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/50 "2013-12-05T20:03:02Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > I’m thinking of trying colloidal Polonium. That stuff has glowing reviews. Well, depending on who you ask, Arafat was a big user, and from the Swiss reports he is still giving glowing reviews of the stuff, so maybe it will be the next big thing. The only down side I can see is that it’s not all natural…and you know how some folks feel about processed stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/51 "2013-12-05T20:39:25Z")
Homeopathic colloidal polonium - now _that’s_ the ticket. Good for what ails you. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/52 "2013-12-06T01:04:57Z")
Oh, I take that too! ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/53 "2013-12-06T01:46:35Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Wikipedia says but goes on to say which rules out gold. Not really, all you need is a brick of gold and some really fine-grit sandpaper. Voila! ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/54 "2013-12-06T02:46:00Z")
Great way to waste a perfectly good brick of gold. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/55 "2013-12-06T14:59:25Z")
Can I sell your friend some dihydrogen oxide (with one part in 10,000,000 of trihydrogen oxide ions)? It is known to be absolutely essential to good health. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/56 "2013-12-06T16:17:33Z")
Reagrding gold salts 9as used to treat arthritis). Is this therapy used anymore? I recall my grandmother was given this treatment (long ago)-was it ever proven effective? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811/59 "2015-08-19T02:56:38Z")
Did you miss your dose of monatomic gold today? Reported. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monoatomic-gold-whats-it-supposed-to-do/450811.md?page=2)