Okay, so we are not truly dissolving the gold, we are actually forming an alloy between the gold and the mercury (called an amalgam). This process is not only cool to look at, but it also is really useful to extract gold from ore. The gold-mercury amalgam can then be isolated and the mercury is boiled off or removed chemically. This leaves behind relatively pure gold. Nile talks about lab safety: https://youtu.be/ftACSEJ6DZA -------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com