WEBVTT - How Did Alchemy Create Chemistry? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.080 Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.600 Lauren bog obamb here with a question, But when you 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:14.000 think of alchemy, do you imagine wizards brewing up concoctions 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:18.000 of bat wings and blood? Historians would have you reconsider. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.800 Most researchers see alchemy not as fodder for Harry Potter 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.880 stories and wikin ceremonies, but as the forerunner of modern 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.880 science and particularly chemistry. Some of these people might have 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.960 been among the best scientific minds of their eras blazing 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.600 trails that led to scientific insights all over the world. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.920 Alchemy was, at its core away for inquisitive minds to 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.320 explore the way the world worked, attempting to decipher nature's 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:46.160 functions and leverage them for various purposes. To achieve those ends, 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.720 alchemists theorized it was necessary to purify the body, spirit, 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.880 and mind. People who practiced alchemy were searching for ways 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.320 to a produce elixirs which would hopefully cure all kinds 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.520 of diseases and be turn base metals like lead into 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.800 precious ones like gold via some yet to be found 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.679 substance called the Philosopher's Stone. We spoke via email with 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.640 Peter Baxwell Stewart, who teaches history at the University of 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.680 St Andrew's in Scotland. He explained the Chinese were particularly 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.360 interested in the first search, the Western Europeans in the second. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.120 From the first centuries CE, China and India were practicing 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.520 a form of alchemy. Europeans widely practiced alchemy during the 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.080 Middle Ages, which was roughly one thousand CE through Fife, 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.440 though the practice continued afterwards, waning through the eighteen hundreds 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.880 but extending all the way into the twentieth century, thanks 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.400 in part to beliefs that ultimately went back to Aristotle 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.720 and the Greek philosophers. Alchemists thought that nature was always 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.520 striving to perfect itself, and since gold was considered the 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.160 perfect metal in part because it doesn't rest or tarnish, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.280 it was regarded as the end all be all of medals. 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.200 There was an idea that because it was so perfect, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.920 all other medals would eventually turn into gold given enough time, 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.880 due to some unknown natural process. So the alchemist was 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.079 seeking to speed up this natural process in the laboratory. 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.200 Maxwell Stewart said, given the basic assumptions of their belief systems, 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:17.760 the alchemists endeavors were entirely rational theoretically, to alchemical experimentation 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.359 might give an insight into God's intentions in creating the 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.600 universe the way he did with their boiling cauldrons and 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.760 intricate crucibles. Alchemists, who were predominantly but not exclusively men, 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.640 exhibited a willingness to experiment, a trial and error mentality 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.240 that explored multiple disciplines and hope of illuminating nature's intricacies 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.680 through honest scholarship and research. Alchemists tinkered with chemical processes 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.920 like dies and perfumes, and of course, also found ways 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.239 to change the properties of various alloys. One didn't attend 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.440 any kind of university to learn these skills. Instead, the 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.560 knowledge of master alchemists was transferred to apprentices under a 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.520 shroud of secrecy. Because that knowledge was so powerful, alchemists 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.680 wrote and obscure symbols, co and metaphors to protect their 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.680 ideas and insights. Despite all the mystery, not all the 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.720 experiments were bogus. One Lawrence Principal, a chemist in science 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.280 historian at Johns Hopkins University, decided to recreate a medieval 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.880 alchemy experiment, one that he hoped would conjure a Philosopher's Tree, 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.320 a structure that was thought to be a precursor to 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:23.480 the Philosopher's Stone. He blended gold and mercury into a flask, 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.200 which he then placed under warm sand in his lab. 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.240 Days later, he was astonished to see that the recipe 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.560 had in fact worked, generating a golden tree like structure 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.640 that would have undoubtedly drawn even more awe. Centuries ago, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.320 these kinds of wonders may not have been possible if 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.040 not for the work of countless alchemists of yore, who 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.200 often used techniques like sublimation and distillation that would be 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:50.280 familiar to any modern chemist. Swiss physician Paracelsus was one 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.400 famous alchemist from the sixteenth century. Part profit, part metallurgist, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.880 part doctor, he became known as the world's first toxicologist 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.920 because he realized the correlation between dosage and toxicity, that 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:04.960 poisons and small doses might be helpful to humans, while 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.960 larger doses could be fatal. In his work, Paracelsis gave 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.080 rise to the concept of making clinical medical diagnoses and 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:16.760 then treating conditions with specific medicines. During the seventeenth century, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.520 British inventor, philosopher and scientist Robert Boyle wished to find 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.920 the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, which, in the alchemic tradition, 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.039 was the most powerful force in nature. That power, he 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.320 thought was a key to the secrets of the universe. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.720 Although Boyle is best known today for pioneering the scientific 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.040 method and for the law named after him, he was 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.120 enamored with alchemy all of his life. Boyle's law, by 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.320 the way, says that the volume of a gas varies 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.040 inversely with pressure. At the same time, Boyle was hard 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.720 at work. Isaac Newton, that guy who gave shape to 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.400 the laws of gravity and optics, was actively involved in alchemy. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.000 For decades. He pursued alchemic secrets that he felt were 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.359 perhaps even more fundamental than gravity. He hoped that in 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.000 teasing out the chemical and mineral makeup of the world, 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.159 scientists could perhaps find the one true essence of nature, 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:08.799 thereby wielding immense power. With its roots divided between philosophical, religious, mystical, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.599 and scientific pursuits, alchemy eventually ran into the buzza of 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.880 rational thinking that developed during the Age of Enlightenment. It's 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.919 secretive tendencies drew suspicions from the government and the church, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.599 and the associations with the occult didn't help either, As such, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.480 alchemy faded into obscurity, leaving behind a reputation colored by 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.560 charlotteanisibon quackery. It's no wonder that ancient people's first gaped 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.760 at the perceived power of alchemists, and later as more 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.800 refined scientific methods took hold, began to mock them. But 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.400 with their legitimate chemical experimentations and applications, alchemists had already 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.359 made their mark, paving the way for modern chemistry. Maxwell 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:52.240 Stewart said experimentation almost inevitably resulted in the discovery of 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.560 various substances hitherto either unknown or not understood. Phosphorus is 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.200 an obvious example, and so that aspect of alchemy leads 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:04.919 into modern chemistry. One particularly famous aspect of that chemistry 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.159 is distillation, including distilling alcohol from sugary bruise into wine 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:17.320 or beer, and then into liquors. Today's episode was written 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.080 by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.440 is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.719 more on this and lots of other distilled topics, visit 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.240 our home planet, how Stuff Works Dot com and for 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.960 more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.599 Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.