Love Letters in Crayon: Gold
Far from flashy or frivolous, Gold is one of the essential elements of existence.
Every Friday afternoon, “64 to Infinity: Love Letters in Crayon” will illustrate the long, strange story of humankind in one of the 64 colors that make up this world-famous primary palette. Our last entry offered due appreciation to one of the rarest known colors in the cosmos: Forest Green. This week, we turn our attention to the glided gleam given by one of the Universe’s more common colors: Gold.

Representing what is thought to be one of the oldest elements in the Universe, The 64's Gold crayon captures a spectacularly shimmering shade which needs no introduction...but demands one nevertheless.
Humanity's longstanding lust for Gold drove men in their pursuit of the godlike power to synthesize it from base materials.

Our fascination with the paradigmatic precious metal extends back far into antiquity, where it was administered for healing at the dawn of medicine in the belief that something so uncommonly magnificent could only be beneficial to human health.
The legacy of Gold as the quintessential color of power and privilege across civilizations and historical eras is known, but this most glamorous tone also bears ample utilitarian potential.
Gold has exceptional conductive capabilities, outperforming more common metals such as aluminum and nickel while remaining impervious to tarnish. It also reflects heat and light extraordinarily well, as anyone who has been struck with a gleaming golden glint can attest.
Gold is tremendously ductile, and a single ounce of the malleable material can be drawn out into a wire measuring 80 kilometers in length as well as flattened into a nearly transparent sheet.
These uncanny attributes make gold a preferred production resource in the manufacture of premium products including high-end cable connectors, smartphones at all price points, and competition-grade heat shielding in supercars such as the iconic McLaren F1.

Although the spell of this magnificent metal has transfixed our kind since time immemorial, Gold merits an even higher status as our technology advances into the stars.
Its ability to block infrared light and electromagnetic radiation was discovered as the forces themselves were revealed to human knowledge, and so Gold is used as a protective coating on the faceplates of spacewalk suits as well as on the network of artificial satellites that orbit The Planet.
Gold is also literal, actual, magical stardust, created on a cosmic scale in the reality-bending collisions of these inconceivably massive celestial bodies, and now you see why I am obsessed with this color.
Gold can certainly capture the imagination, but there’s so much more to life on our beautiful homeworld. Join us next Friday as we pay tribute to a color that has traditionally been much more tangibly beneficial to human health: Goldenrod!
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