Why does NASA use gold foil on equipment and gold-coated visors?
This just reminds me how horribly stifling it is to the entirety of science that so many people love hoarding bricks of gold in underground vaults rather than use it for productive purposes. Besides the maliability and corrosion resistance mentioned in the article, it is also a strong conductor, and very good at heat transfer.<p>It has so many practical useful purposes besides rotting in a bank vault. But a lot of that potential is wasted on those that value it so highly for its scarcity rather than its utility. Why can't we just hoard iron oxide?