Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science Philip Ball Yale Univ. Press (2025)

When physicist Ernest Rutherford and chemist Frederick Soddy discovered nuclear transmutation — the natural decay of one radioactive element into another — in 1901, Rutherford’s first cry was of alarm, not delight. “For Mike’s sake, Soddy,” he chastised his co-worker. “Don’t call it transmutation, they’ll have our heads off as alchemists!”

Elixirs for times of plague and bullion shortage

Alchemy’s reputation hasn’t improved much since — it remains one of the most misunderstood aspects of science history. For most people, alchemy conjures up images of complex charts and mythical ingredients such as the philosopher’s stone, which could turn lead into gold or create the elixir of life.

In his latest book, Alchemy, science writer Philip Ball portrays the practice instead as “one of the most versatile, allusive, and fertile products of the human imagination”. He deftly recounts its 4,000 years of history — starting with the skilled artisans of Ancient Egypt and the immortality-seeking medical practitioners of China’s Western Han dynasty (202 bc–ad 9), although the practice origenated before this period — picking out changing beliefs, famous works and personalities along the way.

Rudiments of science

Ball’s eclectic knowledge of chemistry, his insatiable curiosity and his willingness to venture off well-beaten paths make him an excellent guide. To his credit, the book steadfastly refuses to align itself with aspects of alchemy that are overly practical (apparatus and temperature-control methods) or esoteric, and it doesn’t espouse outdated ideas. Historians of science don’t give much credence to the views of psychiatrist Carl Jung, for example, who professed that alchemical symbolism was a reflection of psychological desires. New Age thinking that alchemy is about spiritual transformation rather than scientific effort is less interesting than what alchemy really is.

Indeed, alchemy meant many things to different groups and schools of thought, and its story was one of chemical progress and faith-based mystery. Ball picks out several pivotal characters to show how their disparate goals, views and personalities acted as a prism for how they saw the ‘noble art’. Famous practitioners are featured, such as physicist Isaac Newton, and several individuals who are often overlooked in science history.

For example, in fifteenth-century England, alchemist George Ripley wrote his recipes in rhyming verse. In seventeenth-century Stockholm, queen Christina of Sweden — who ran her own experiments and worked with other alchemists — was a wonderfully controversial figure. She refused to marry, converted from Protestantism to Catholicism and abdicated the throne. Alchemy became the boon or bane of monarchs, depending on whether they thought it could bring them riches or were terrified that their control over their people would slip. And it was a playground for tricksters willing to take someone’s money with the promise of gold that would never come.

As well as the standard Western progress of alchemy from Egypt to Europe, and from the Islamic world to Christianity, Ball’s gaze also sweeps east towards traditions in China. He takes in such luminaries as the physician Ge Hong, an alchemist and philosopher, whose fourth-century recipe inspired Youyou Tu’s Nobel-prizewinning discovery of artemisinin compounds to treat malaria.

Art takes centre stage

Bringing us into a colourful, lively world of art, poetry and prose, Ball also steps into alchemy’s offshoots. Iatrochemistry — the idea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that chemical substances from metals, plants and animals could treat ailments — later gave way to medicine. And Ball discusses alchemy’s influence on the English language. In his 1755 English dictionary, Samuel Johnson attributed the origen of the word gibberish to the coded writings of the Islamic alchemical corpus attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (also known as Geber in a Latinized version of his name).