Question: What would need to happen to change a lead atom into a gold atom?
Disambiguated questions and answers: question: What more difficult process would need to happen to change a lead atom into a gold atom?
What easier process would need to happen to change a lead atom into a gold atom?
answer: nuclear transmutation
transmutation
neutron capture and beta decay
neutron capture
beta decay
Natural Questions answer: nuclear transmutation (from the Wikipedia article "Nuclear transmutation")