Is Alchemy real?
Alchemy was arguably a fore runner to modern chemistry, but had no scientific basis. Supposedly it involved the search for the mythical philosopher’s stone, which would allow the alchemist to turn base metals into gold. The experimentation which occured would have been a valuable part of the scientific process -probably pretty dangerous too. The observations made would have led the old experimenters to form hypotheses about the nature of the materials they were working with, which would be tested and lead to an understanding of their nature. Chemical reactions are not influenced by whether it is a full moon or you cast spells. This can be proven by experimentation. Similarly, we now know that chemical reactions cannot alter the atomic characteristics of the material. The Curies refined pitchblend to isolate and extract radium. They didn’t create it from something else. Thus the original goal was shown to be unachievable and based on false hypotheses. It has been kindly suggested that a
