with SR4's state of the art nano-tech, is it possible?
water can be made by combining hydrogen and oxygen . .
and hydrogen and oxygen can be separated into neutrons, electrons and positrons if i remember what little chem-tech has stuck in my head since school correctly . .
so could one arrange the correct number of electrons, neutrons and protons to basically make anything one would need?
probably not . . but i was bored and i thought this would make good stuff for a discussion <.< . .

Who cares about Gold?

When can they artificially create Petroleum!

that one should be easier, as petroleum does not consist of a single element like gold(aurum)
petroleum is a mixture of different things, so if you can synthesize the ingredients, you should be able to synthesze petroleum . .

Nanotech couldn't do it - wrong scale. What you're looking at is nuclear transmutation.

AH is correct here.

Unless you had nanotech that could somehow locate and capture subatomic particles moving at the speed of light. =)

And you don't get positrons from nuclear separation like you are thinking. Well, ok, nuclear separation doesn't happen at all like you're thinking, but that's another matter. =) Get it? Matter? I kill me.

just what the hell do you NOT know about? o.o

as for actually making gold, yeah, probably the subatomic stuffies . . but what about the black gold of petroleum?

We've had oil-leeching bacteria in SR for a while now. You could theoretically do it with nanotech, but it would be a bit wasteful as the bacteria are cheaper and reproduce on their own without a hive. Of course, I suppose your could have a nanoforge out in the wilderness that could convert your base matter into a liter or two of petrol in an emergency.

I believe we can, right now, create gold from other elements. However, you're talking one atom at a time. Probably the same with oil, if we wanted, but how many molecules do you need to run your car? Also keep in mind, it is tremendously expensive to make that one atom.

So sure, if you absolutely MUST HAVE a gallon of gas and don't mind paying a billion or two to do it, go for it.

Petrol was a miracle in the 20th century because it's an energy source we didn't make, but extract. Making petrol by any means will most likely be take more energy than burning it will release. As others have said with SR2070 tech it is very likely possible, but will only ever supply a tiny niche market. A Niche that is drying up as there is less and less legacy equipment that needs petrol and is hidden in the wilderness.

Craig Venter predicted that his team would soon produce synthetic bacteria which would consume carbon dioxide to produce a "fourth generation fuel".

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/227
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The World hath been much abused by the Opinion of Making of Gold: The Worke it selfe I judge to be possible; But the Meanes (hitherto propounded) to effect it, are, in the Practice, full of Errour and Imposture; And in the Theory, full of unsound Imaginations. For to say, that Nature hath an Intention to make all Metals Gold; and that, if she were delivered from Impedients, shee would performe her owne Worke; And that, if the Crudities, Impurities, and Leprosities of Metals were cured, they would become Gold ; And that a little Quantity of the medicine, in the Worke of Projection,will turne a Sea of the baser Metall into Gold, by Multiplying: All these are but dreams: And so are many other Grounds of Alchymy. And to help the Matter, the Alchymists call in likewise many Vanities, out of Astrology, Naturall Magicke; Superstitious Interpretations of Scriptures; Auricular Traditions ; Faigned Testimonies of Ancient Authors; And the like.
Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries... London, 1627

Since medieval times the dream of alchemists has been to make gold, the exemplar of the precious metals, out of lead, the basest of the base metals. Heretofore this has been possible only through the use of particle accelerators and other devices of nuclear mechanics to remove three protons from each lead atom, a process requiring so much energy that it was far more costly than any gold that could be produced.

But [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory] Lab Director Stew Pidasso said Tuesday night the lab's scientists have produced economic quantities of the precious metal in a different way.

"The alchemists and the early nuclear scientists failed to realize that there's more than one way to skin a proton," Pidasso said. "Instead of trying to knock protons out of lead, protons can be borrowed from metals with lower atomic numbers and added to make gold."
http://www.gata.org/node/5272

if that ever hits the market, that guy will get stinking rich . .

That's only because we're all still loading our guns.

Actually we can make it already. And for about as much as making regular fuel if not cheaper.
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Bio..._from_Algae_Oil for BioDiesel
and the U of A recently made a pentanol producing form of E. coli to supply gas engines.