Lengthy earlier than chemistry was a proper science, people had been experimenting with substances to unravel issues, treatment diseases and become profitable. In his guide “The Age of Alchemy: How Early Innovators Shaped Modern Chemistry” (Profile Books, 2026), writer Kit Chapman, a science journalist and honorary researcher at Falmouth College within the U.Okay., traces how this historical, protoscientific custom formed the world.
From our ancestors’ early use of fireside to some unintentional — and disastrous — pyrotechnics within the 14th-century French court docket of Charles VI, Chapman reveals how early improvements the world over paved the way in which for contemporary science.
Reside Science spoke with Chapman about his guide, which has been short-listed for the 2026 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.
Package Chapman
Package Chapman is an award-winning science journalist and adventurer who has travelled to greater than 100 international locations in his quest to discover historical improvements and discoveries. His first guide, “Superheavy”, was a finalist for the AAAS SB&F prize, his second, “Racing Inexperienced”, was named the RAC Motorsport Guide of the Yr 2023, and his newest, “The Age of Alchemy”, has been shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Guide Prize. Package holds a masters diploma in pharmacy from the College of Bradford, and a PhD within the historical past of science from the College of Sunderland. A former editor at Chemistry World, Package is at the moment an honorary researcher at Falmouth College, UK.
Hannah Osborne: The guide is filled with sensible historic anecdotes that deliver all of those alchemy breakthroughs into context. What was your favourite one and why?
Package Chapman: I imply, you possibly can’t go improper with a person making an attempt to show his personal urine into gold, I believe. Hennig Model [who accidentally discovered phosphorus in the 17th century] was one in every of my early touchstones. I’ve identified about this story for some time. I’ve all the time thought, “How can I get this right into a guide? What is the hyperlink?” Clearly alchemy gives this unbelievable base. He bankrupted two wives to try to fund his 1,500-gallon [5,700 liters] urine behavior — after which he will get one thing [phosphorous], in opposition to the percentages.
That is the primary ingredient we will truly put a reputation to. That is the primary individual we will say truly found a chemical ingredient, and it is an alchemist within the purest sense of the phrase. Then, in fact, he tries to maintain it secret. He sells it, finally, to a pal, and his urine goes on tour round Europe, displaying the kings and queens this glowing pee, earlier than instantly, [chemist and philosopher] Robert Boyle truly works out precisely what is going on on.
That, to me, type of encompassed every little thing I hoped for within the guide. There is a unbelievable story there that is about human connection. There’s the unraveling of mythology, and theology and perception, and beginning to have a look at science. However there’s additionally actual sensible stuff occurring there. He did not know what he was doing. He simply did not know why he was doing it, and that I discovered fascinating.
HO: You make the purpose that these individuals weren’t pondering, “Oh, I’ll do chemistry.” How vital is that for understanding how these early improvements formed trendy data of how issues work?
KC: I believe that is important. We regularly take a look at science as one thing separate from the actual world, and one of many issues that I actually wished to do with this guide was as an example that science is happening in each occupation. It is occurring in each residence, constantly; it is occurring in our our bodies constantly. It is in every single place.
Science is a solution to perceive what is going on on on this planet. It’s not a separate factor from tradition, from perception, from commerce, from globalization, from discovery, from simply getting on with life. I wished to usher in the potters, the weavers, the bakers, the urine salesmen — which was a whole factor that I did not actually know I needed to go down. I discovered it fascinating.
And, in fact, [there are] artisans. Once we begin the very first chemistry that is being completed, it’s individuals making an attempt to create lovely artworks, perfumes, issues like that. It strikes away from survival and into this ecstatic magnificence, and that, to me, encompasses what I like in regards to the historical past of science. It is bringing all of those threads collectively and making discoveries not essentially the place we predict we will discover them.
HO: You talked about the fantastic thing about all of it, and the fragrance. One of many chapters I actually loved was the primary chemist who was a feminine fragrance maker in historical Assyria.
KC: Tappūtī Bēlet-ekallim. The fascinating factor is that the one cause we all know her title is that she put it down in cuneiform. She wrote it down. She could properly have been a slave; fragrance makers had been typically slaves. She was definitely a girl who was working within the palace. She was working with one other girl whose title, sadly, we have misplaced to time.
What I discover fascinating is that we now have this one that was one of many working class, one of many underdogs, slaving for every week to make this potion that she wrote down as a result of the recipe is extremely detailed. And we bear in mind her title, however we now have no recollection of the lord or girl that she was truly making it for. It is type of class warfare all through the centuries.
HO: I discovered the intense type of secrecy actually putting — that so many of those historical texts had been misplaced as a result of they had been being hidden. However you then even have the autumn of civilizations, so we have misplaced all this information.
KC: It is this mixture of, as you talked about, hiding the recipes as a result of they’re commerce secrets and techniques. In case you take a look at the primary alchemy guide that we truly know of — “Physika Kai Mystika” — it actually interprets as “pure and secret questions” or commerce secrets and techniques. These had been craftsmen, and, in fact, they did not wish to share it with rival craftsmen. In case you’ve acquired a very good recipe for making one thing appear like gold, you wish to hold that to your self.
They use these code phrases — and that went during into what we consider as alchemy, that type of Renaissance interval the place they’re speaking about taking the fiery sword from the stomach of the dragon, which is simply fantastic and descriptive.
However you even have issues like Emperor Diocletian destroying the texts in Alexandria in 300 A.D. Why did he do it? As a result of it was a matter of survival for him. Twenty-five of his predecessors had been murdered by their very own guards or died of plague and issues like that — horrible fates. He wished to keep away from that, and the concept [someone] may flip one thing into gold terrified him. It will debase his forex, so it all the time brings in that politics. It brings in human nature and human curiosity.
HO: Do you assume there are nonetheless issues we’re but to find from alchemy from the previous?
KC: Yeah, with out query. Whether or not or not we will uncover some type of new, groundbreaking expertise that is going to vary the world, I can not see that taking place. However the one factor we may see is the usage of pure merchandise in a means that we hadn’t essentially thought [of].
An important instance of that’s [Nobel Prize-winning chemist] Tu Youyou and the invention of artemisinin compounds [from the] qinghao [plant], which comes from a Chinese language alchemist’s natural treatments guide, primarily 1,700 years in the past. The truth that the perfect protection we now have in opposition to malaria, the perfect antimalarials doable, comes from this historical alchemical supply signifies that there is in all probability extra to seek out.
Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou
(Picture credit score: STR / Stringer through Getty Photographs)
There may be nearly definitely extra to seek out when it comes to how they [ancient alchemists] used recipes, how they might try to make gold. Their understanding of the world is one thing that we do not essentially have a full grasp of, and we’re nonetheless piecing it collectively. There’s some fantastic work being completed by Matteo Martinelli and others trying on the historical past of, notably of Western alchemy rising in Egypt.
We even have issues like Greek hearth. Now we have a reasonably good concept how they did it, however in the event you’re searching for what the precise recipe [is], we’re nonetheless not 100% positive.
HO: It is fascinating now, watching trendy equivalents happening. We nonetheless, to an extent, attempt to guard our personal data.
KC: Yeah, we do, and I believe it is truly a pernicious factor in science. Now we have this publish-or -perish mentality, which is that if we do not get the paper out first, clearly we lose the patent, however wider than that, we lose the kudos. There’s this sort of necessity to type of cover issues. You hear about all types of shenanigans — a reviewer delaying a paper till their paper comes out, issues like that, all this sort of naughtiness occurring.
We have got to acknowledge that science has moved on definitely from the “Great Man” concept. We’re now working collaboratively in groups. That’s the solely means that trendy science will get completed. The second, if there’s one lesson from the guide, it is that in the event you try to cover science, you delay progress.
In case you take a look at the normal story of science, we discuss Europe. Often, we would herald China. However India, Africa, Mesoamerica, South America, North America — each single continent was having scientific discoveries and developments.
The second you truly begin spreading concepts, the actual ignition for me for the Renaissance and for what turns into chemistry, is the printing press. It is the truth that concepts can then be shared and accessed by everyone. The second we begin realizing that science is a worldwide endeavor, that everybody can do it — man, girl, baby, it would not matter your nationality, [it] would not matter your ethnic ethnicity, it is for everyone — the earlier we will begin seeing some main progress that we in any other case would not make.
HO: We see a great deal of the advances in chemistry and alchemy inside civilizational melting pots. What had been among the largest surprises to you once you had been researching the guide?
KC: One factor that actually irritated me was, trying via textbooks, you possibly can take a look at who made zinc, and also you provide you with a reputation that got here from the 1700s, or how platinum was found — that is a unbelievable instance. Platinum was found by a conquistador who seen that some natives had been sporting platinum. However, in fact, he did not uncover it; it was found by the Indigenous populations.
The quantity of science that got here out of Mesoamerica, Central America, and the way in which that science was additionally being developed in India, it is simply type of utterly ignored. In case you take a look at the normal story of science, we discuss Europe. Often, we would herald China. However India, Africa, Mesoamerica, South America, North America — each single continent was having scientific discoveries and developments.
They weren’t essentially developments that we consider when it comes to resulting in chemistry, however they had been coping with social issues that they’d on the time. They had been tackling what was in entrance of them, and we all the time want to recollect after we’re historical past to have a look at the context of the discoveries.
HO: Which breakthrough did you assume was most spectacular when it comes to the supplies or amenities that had been out there?
KC: One factor that I discovered type of putting was, there is a chap known as Paracelsus who is totally fascinating, completely bonkers. Paracelsus is, for me, the archetypical alchemist as a result of he was definitely making an attempt to revitalize medication and do away with humor idea and provide you with all these concepts. [Editor’s note: Humor theory is the idea that human health and temperament were related to four fluids in the body — black and yellow bile, blood and phlegm.] However he additionally believed that mermaids had been actual and that they had been simply out to steal males’s souls.
A portray of Paracelsus.
(Picture credit score: GL Archive through Alamy)
He was a drunk, he had a broadsword, and but he is the man that was in a position to mix what we consider as the normal herbalist position and the docs. At that time, docs weren’t even touching sufferers. They believed that the true talent of a medical man was that you simply did not even want to look at a affected person; you could possibly simply type of take a look at them and also you’d know what was improper. He [Paracelsus] was in a position to say, “No, that is not proper; you could truly check issues, and you could strive issues.” The second we truly mix these two completely different threads collectively is after we truly began to get what turns into of recent medication. The variety of lives that saves is incalculable, so I believe that that is one of many nice moments.
The opposite one which all the time involves me is Antoine Lavoisier within the French Revolution. He made a number of nice discoveries — the truth that matter can solely be modified; it may well’t be destroyed [at least at low energies]. The concept in the event you take one thing, then clearly there’s acquired to be elements to that; you are not making it out of skinny air. And arising with an inventory of components within the French Revolution or simply earlier than the French Revolution, sadly dies, from the guillotine [when Lavoisier was executed].
That, for me, was after we began to get true chemistry. That is when the entire magic is dispelled. I believe he [Lavoisier] is, for me, the French equal of Isaac Newton. He is unimaginable.
HO: For you personally, all through researching and writing the guide, what was your largest takeaway and what was the largest shock?
KC: My largest takeaway is that science occurs in every single place constantly via everybody. I traveled all over the world for this guide; I went to just about the entire continents. I did not go right down to Australia; that is about it. Wherever you go, there are discoveries being made. There are people who find themselves making an attempt to make their worlds higher.
Science will not be for this elite group; it is for everybody. One of many issues I attempt to do with this guide is to indicate those who even in the event you assume that science is not for you, it completely is; you are doing science constantly.
There’ve been so many [surprises]. One of many issues — that is purely due to the way in which that I used to be taught and these inherent biases that we now have — but it surely’s really easy to miss the position of ladies. While you begin delving into the position of ladies in science … You have talked about Tappūtī; we even have Mary the Jewess. All through the Renaissance, we now have individuals like Caterina Sforza and [the] very well-known Queen Christina of Sweden, which I did not point out within the guide as a result of I simply did not have area.
The one shocker for me is that this guide “The Secrets and techniques of Isabella Cortese,” which was a person pretending to be a girl to promote his science guide. For me, [it] simply type of unravels this entire concept that science is not for everybody.
This interview has been condensed and edited calmly for readability.
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The Age of Alchemy (Hardback)
“Age of Alchemy” is an interesting and humorous dive into chemistry lengthy earlier than chemistry existed. It captures the ingenuity of people throughout cultures and time, revealing how in the end the work of those early innovators would finally meld into trendy science.
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