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Alchemy: discredited pseudoscience or chemistry’s worthy ancestor?

A spirited tour of alchemy shows how it bridged everything from chemical reactions, medicine and craft to philosophy, art and religion.
By
  1. Kit Chapman

    1. Kit Chapman is a science journalist and science historian at Falmouth University, UK.

A 16th century painting of an alchemist using alchemical equipment, with a female figure leaning over his shoulder, appearing to distract him from his work, while in the background fires rage in buildings and mines

An alchemist is tempted by Luxuria, or perhaps warned by Prudentia, in a sixteenth-century painting after a print by artist Marten de Vos. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London (45101i)

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

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Nature 646, 537-538 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03309-9

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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