In Philadelphia last week, a group of scientists busily polished what was, until recently, a rusty old science. Alchemy, the ancient pursuit of transmuting base metals into gold, has been absent as a ...

The Chemical Heritage Foundation wants to set the record straight about alchemy. The medieval practice, often perceived as a dark art or pseudoscience, actually helped form the process of scientific ...

First steps: from alchemy to chemistry? -- Robert Boyle: chemistry and experiment -- A German story: what burns, and how -- An enlightened discipline: chemistry as science and craft -- Different kinds ...

Can alchemy be described as a protoscience? Do ancient texts with obscure formulas and procedures describe mystic rituals and allegoric visions? Or do they record instructions to carry out real ...

A novelist and popular history writer, Kelly traces the history of gunpowder from 10th-century China to the late 19th century, when it was supplanted by Alfred Nobel's nitroglycerin. Kelly takes ...

Within a 20-minute walk from Notre Dame Cathedral, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, is the oldest house in the city: the house of Nicolas Flamel. If the name rings a vague bell, perhaps it’s ...

Prologue: the devil's distillate -- Fire drug -- Thundring noyse -- The most pernicious arts -- The devills birds -- Villainous saltpetre -- Conquest's crimson wing -- Nitro-aerial spirit -- No one ...