the.com/alchemy
Chemistry's embarrassing teenage phase, trying to get rich quick before learning to show its work.
means A medieval proto-science that mixed real chemistry with mysticism, magic, and the obsessive quest to turn base metals into gold and find the secret to eternal life.
from Traces through medieval Latin and Arabic 'al-kimiya' — 'al' being the Arabic article 'the,' and 'kimiya' likely borrowed from the Greek 'khemia,' possibly referring to Egypt itself (the 'black land' of Nile silt) or to the art of metalworking. So the word carries Egypt, Greece, and the Arab world all fused together, fittingly for a practice that was itself a melting pot of traditions before it cooled into modern chemistry.
- actual goal
- turn lead into gold, literally
- hidden payoff
- invented distillation, acids, and lab glassware
- famous dabbler
- Isaac Newton wrote more alchemy than physics
- etymology twist
- word comes from Arabic al-kimiya, Egyptian roots