What are simple items that have a better version?

I have to to a art project about alchemy. I read its sorta about turning simple things into a grater things.
Like Iron to Gold

What are common items that have a better counter part? And i don't mean like " Ipod to Iphone" or "penny to 100 dollar bill"
More of something with not that much value to big value or importance

From cheese you can make cheese sauce

you can roast most vegetables, much better than raw

Coal to diamonds (coal doesn't actually form diamonds, but many people believe they do)

  • Would a bad esn version iPhone be able to be activated with simple mobile? So I want to buy a iPhone 5 and I saw one on eBay for Verizon but it has bad esn like now Verizon has its iPhone 5 unlocked but if it has bad esn would I be able to activate it? The iPhone 5 for Verizon is factory unlocked which allows you to connect to gsm which is what simple mobile is
  • What everyday items do we use today that we didn't have in 2006? I'm making a youtube video about things that werent around or popular when I was 16 (in 2006) that are extremely well known or used by to the everyday teenager in 2013 Examples: Iphone Justin Bieber Facebook Twitter MySpace was number 1 lol Any other things you may have in mind?
  • I have iphone 4s use by simple mobile? My iphone4s was updated yesterday to ios 7, and now my phone can't make calls. I don't know what to do. I need help. Before my simple mobile was working fine, I can make calls. And now that it updated to ios 7. I can't proceed to make calls.
  • Is it better to have more or less pixels per inch for better clarity? I'm not sure if that makes sense or if I have asked it correctly. What I mean is if the Iphone 5 has 326 PPI and a HTC has for instance 440 PPI which one would be better? So would that mean the pixels would be larger on a computer screen with retina display or would they have to be smaller?