1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,600 Speaker 1: Lauren bog obamb here with a question, But when you 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: think of alchemy, do you imagine wizards brewing up concoctions 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: of bat wings and blood? Historians would have you reconsider. 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: Most researchers see alchemy not as fodder for Harry Potter 6 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: stories and wikin ceremonies, but as the forerunner of modern 7 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: science and particularly chemistry. Some of these people might have 8 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: been among the best scientific minds of their eras blazing 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: trails that led to scientific insights all over the world. 10 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: Alchemy was, at its core away for inquisitive minds to 11 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: explore the way the world worked, attempting to decipher nature's 12 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:46,160 Speaker 1: functions and leverage them for various purposes. To achieve those ends, 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: alchemists theorized it was necessary to purify the body, spirit, 14 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: and mind. People who practiced alchemy were searching for ways 15 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: to a produce elixirs which would hopefully cure all kinds 16 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: of diseases and be turn base metals like lead into 17 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 1: precious ones like gold via some yet to be found 18 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:08,679 Speaker 1: substance called the Philosopher's Stone. We spoke via email with 19 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: Peter Baxwell Stewart, who teaches history at the University of 20 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,680 Speaker 1: St Andrew's in Scotland. He explained the Chinese were particularly 21 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: interested in the first search, the Western Europeans in the second. 22 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,120 Speaker 1: From the first centuries CE, China and India were practicing 23 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: a form of alchemy. Europeans widely practiced alchemy during the 24 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: Middle Ages, which was roughly one thousand CE through Fife, 25 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: though the practice continued afterwards, waning through the eighteen hundreds 26 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: but extending all the way into the twentieth century, thanks 27 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: in part to beliefs that ultimately went back to Aristotle 28 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: and the Greek philosophers. Alchemists thought that nature was always 29 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: striving to perfect itself, and since gold was considered the 30 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: perfect metal in part because it doesn't rest or tarnish, 31 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: it was regarded as the end all be all of medals. 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: There was an idea that because it was so perfect, 33 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: all other medals would eventually turn into gold given enough time, 34 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: due to some unknown natural process. So the alchemist was 35 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 1: seeking to speed up this natural process in the laboratory. 36 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: Maxwell Stewart said, given the basic assumptions of their belief systems, 37 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: the alchemists endeavors were entirely rational theoretically, to alchemical experimentation 38 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: might give an insight into God's intentions in creating the 39 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: universe the way he did with their boiling cauldrons and 40 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: intricate crucibles. Alchemists, who were predominantly but not exclusively men, 41 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,640 Speaker 1: exhibited a willingness to experiment, a trial and error mentality 42 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: that explored multiple disciplines and hope of illuminating nature's intricacies 43 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: through honest scholarship and research. Alchemists tinkered with chemical processes 44 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: like dies and perfumes, and of course, also found ways 45 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:48,239 Speaker 1: to change the properties of various alloys. One didn't attend 46 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: any kind of university to learn these skills. Instead, the 47 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: knowledge of master alchemists was transferred to apprentices under a 48 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: shroud of secrecy. Because that knowledge was so powerful, alchemists 49 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,680 Speaker 1: wrote and obscure symbols, co and metaphors to protect their 50 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,680 Speaker 1: ideas and insights. Despite all the mystery, not all the 51 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: experiments were bogus. One Lawrence Principal, a chemist in science 52 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: historian at Johns Hopkins University, decided to recreate a medieval 53 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: alchemy experiment, one that he hoped would conjure a Philosopher's Tree, 54 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: a structure that was thought to be a precursor to 55 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: the Philosopher's Stone. He blended gold and mercury into a flask, 56 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: which he then placed under warm sand in his lab. 57 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: Days later, he was astonished to see that the recipe 58 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: had in fact worked, generating a golden tree like structure 59 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,640 Speaker 1: that would have undoubtedly drawn even more awe. Centuries ago, 60 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: these kinds of wonders may not have been possible if 61 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,040 Speaker 1: not for the work of countless alchemists of yore, who 62 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: often used techniques like sublimation and distillation that would be 63 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: familiar to any modern chemist. Swiss physician Paracelsus was one 64 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: famous alchemist from the sixteenth century. Part profit, part metallurgist, 65 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: part doctor, he became known as the world's first toxicologist 66 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: because he realized the correlation between dosage and toxicity, that 67 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: poisons and small doses might be helpful to humans, while 68 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: larger doses could be fatal. In his work, Paracelsis gave 69 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: rise to the concept of making clinical medical diagnoses and 70 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: then treating conditions with specific medicines. During the seventeenth century, 71 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: British inventor, philosopher and scientist Robert Boyle wished to find 72 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, which, in the alchemic tradition, 73 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: was the most powerful force in nature. That power, he 74 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: thought was a key to the secrets of the universe. 75 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,720 Speaker 1: Although Boyle is best known today for pioneering the scientific 76 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: method and for the law named after him, he was 77 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: enamored with alchemy all of his life. Boyle's law, by 78 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: the way, says that the volume of a gas varies 79 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: inversely with pressure. At the same time, Boyle was hard 80 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: at work. Isaac Newton, that guy who gave shape to 81 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: the laws of gravity and optics, was actively involved in alchemy. 82 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: For decades. He pursued alchemic secrets that he felt were 83 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:56,359 Speaker 1: perhaps even more fundamental than gravity. He hoped that in 84 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: teasing out the chemical and mineral makeup of the world, 85 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: scientists could perhaps find the one true essence of nature, 86 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:08,799 Speaker 1: thereby wielding immense power. With its roots divided between philosophical, religious, mystical, 87 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 1: and scientific pursuits, alchemy eventually ran into the buzza of 88 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: rational thinking that developed during the Age of Enlightenment. It's 89 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,919 Speaker 1: secretive tendencies drew suspicions from the government and the church, 90 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,599 Speaker 1: and the associations with the occult didn't help either, As such, 91 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,480 Speaker 1: alchemy faded into obscurity, leaving behind a reputation colored by 92 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: charlotteanisibon quackery. It's no wonder that ancient people's first gaped 93 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 1: at the perceived power of alchemists, and later as more 94 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: refined scientific methods took hold, began to mock them. But 95 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 1: with their legitimate chemical experimentations and applications, alchemists had already 96 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:48,359 Speaker 1: made their mark, paving the way for modern chemistry. Maxwell 97 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: Stewart said experimentation almost inevitably resulted in the discovery of 98 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: various substances hitherto either unknown or not understood. Phosphorus is 99 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: an obvious example, and so that aspect of alchemy leads 100 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,919 Speaker 1: into modern chemistry. One particularly famous aspect of that chemistry 101 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,159 Speaker 1: is distillation, including distilling alcohol from sugary bruise into wine 102 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:17,320 Speaker 1: or beer, and then into liquors. Today's episode was written 103 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,080 Speaker 1: by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff 104 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For 105 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,719 Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other distilled topics, visit 106 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: our home planet, how Stuff Works Dot com and for 107 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 108 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,599 Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.