Abstract
“THE history of Alchemy is the history of an error.” Such was, about seventy years ago, Hermann Kopp's short summary of centuries of attempts to transmute chemical elements1. It is well known that two generations later alchemy became a reality, when it had passed from the realm of the chemists to that of the physicists, who not only possessed the right weapons for attacking the atoms but also invented methods of detecting transmutations of matter on an infinitely smaller scale than those sought by chemists. One must, however, not overlook the importance of the help which was, and is, given by chemistry in many cases where a process of transmutation has to be investigated.
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Paneth, F. Role of Chemistry in the Study of Atomic Transmutation. Nature 137, 560–562 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137560a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137560a0
