How Did Alchemy Create Chemistry?

science and particularly chemistry. Some of these people might have been among the best scientific minds of their eras blazing trails that led to scientific insights all over the world. Alchemy was, at its core away for inquisitive minds to explore the way the world worked, attempting to decipher nature's functions and leverage them for various purposes. To achieve those ends, alchemists theorized it was necessary to purify the body, spirit,

and mind. People who practiced alchemy were searching for ways to a produce elixirs which would hopefully cure all kinds of diseases and be turn base metals like lead into precious ones like gold via some yet to be found substance called the Philosopher's Stone. We spoke via email with Peter Baxwell Stewart, who teaches history at the University of St Andrew's in Scotland. He explained the Chinese were particularly interested in the first search, the Western Europeans in the second.

From the first centuries CE, China and India were practicing a form of alchemy. Europeans widely practiced alchemy during the Middle Ages, which was roughly one thousand CE through Fife, though the practice continued afterwards, waning through the eighteen hundreds but extending all the way into the twentieth century, thanks in part to beliefs that ultimately went back to Aristotle

and the Greek philosophers. Alchemists thought that nature was always striving to perfect itself, and since gold was considered the perfect metal in part because it doesn't rest or tarnish, it was regarded as the end all be all of medals. There was an idea that because it was so perfect, all other medals would eventually turn into gold given enough time, due to some unknown natural process. So the alchemist was seeking to speed up this natural process in the laboratory.

Maxwell Stewart said, given the basic assumptions of their belief systems, the alchemists endeavors were entirely rational theoretically, to alchemical experimentation might give an insight into God's intentions in creating the universe the way he did with their boiling cauldrons and

intricate crucibles. Alchemists, who were predominantly but not exclusively men, exhibited a willingness to experiment, a trial and error mentality that explored multiple disciplines and hope of illuminating nature's intricacies through honest scholarship and research. Alchemists tinkered with chemical processes like dies and perfumes, and of course, also found ways to change the properties of various alloys. One didn't attend

any kind of university to learn these skills. Instead, the knowledge of master alchemists was transferred to apprentices under a shroud of secrecy. Because that knowledge was so powerful, alchemists wrote and obscure symbols, co and metaphors to protect their ideas and insights. Despite all the mystery, not all the

experiments were bogus. One Lawrence Principal, a chemist in science historian at Johns Hopkins University, decided to recreate a medieval alchemy experiment, one that he hoped would conjure a Philosopher's Tree, a structure that was thought to be a precursor to the Philosopher's Stone. He blended gold and mercury into a flask, which he then placed under warm sand in his lab. Days later, he was astonished to see that the recipe had in fact worked, generating a golden tree like structure

that would have undoubtedly drawn even more awe. Centuries ago, these kinds of wonders may not have been possible if not for the work of countless alchemists of yore, who often used techniques like sublimation and distillation that would be familiar to any modern chemist. Swiss physician Paracelsus was one

famous alchemist from the sixteenth century. Part profit, part metallurgist, part doctor, he became known as the world's first toxicologist because he realized the correlation between dosage and toxicity, that poisons and small doses might be helpful to humans, while larger doses could be fatal. In his work, Paracelsis gave rise to the concept of making clinical medical diagnoses and

then treating conditions with specific medicines. During the seventeenth century, British inventor, philosopher and scientist Robert Boyle wished to find the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, which, in the alchemic tradition, was the most powerful force in nature. That power, he thought was a key to the secrets of the universe. Although Boyle is best known today for pioneering the scientific method and for the law named after him, he was

enamored with alchemy all of his life. Boyle's law, by the way, says that the volume of a gas varies inversely with pressure. At the same time, Boyle was hard at work. Isaac Newton, that guy who gave shape to the laws of gravity and optics, was actively involved in alchemy. For decades. He pursued alchemic secrets that he felt were

perhaps even more fundamental than gravity. He hoped that in teasing out the chemical and mineral makeup of the world, scientists could perhaps find the one true essence of nature, thereby wielding immense power. With its roots divided between philosophical, religious, mystical, and scientific pursuits, alchemy eventually ran into the buzza of

rational thinking that developed during the Age of Enlightenment. It's secretive tendencies drew suspicions from the government and the church, and the associations with the occult didn't help either, As such, alchemy faded into obscurity, leaving behind a reputation colored by charlotteanisibon quackery. It's no wonder that ancient people's first gaped at the perceived power of alchemists, and later as more

refined scientific methods took hold, began to mock them. But with their legitimate chemical experimentations and applications, alchemists had already made their mark, paving the way for modern chemistry. Maxwell Stewart said experimentation almost inevitably resulted in the discovery of various substances hitherto either unknown or not understood. Phosphorus is an obvious example, and so that aspect of alchemy leads

into modern chemistry. One particularly famous aspect of that chemistry is distillation, including distilling alcohol from sugary bruise into wine or beer, and then into liquors. Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff

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