Researchers at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have successfully transmuted lead into gold, a feat long pursued by alchemists in the 17th century. The process occurred for a brief fraction of a second and came with an enormous price tag. To accomplish this, the LHC accelerated ions of lead to incredible speeds before colliding them. However, achieving such a reaction is impossible through chemical means due to differences in proton numbers between lead (82) and gold (79).
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/large-hadron-collider-physicists-turn-lead-into-gold-for-a-fraction-of-a