Alchemy

“There were reasons that alchemists thought they could make gold,” Newman says. “They had theories about the nature of metals that made them believe they could manipulate their structure. They also conducted experiments that they believed proved minerals could be made to grow.” In an age when there were no microscopes to penetrate living cells and no understanding of the nature of atoms and molecules, the alchemists were not misguided so much as misinformed, doing their best to make sense of a world they could not see. That they understood as much as they did is the real marvel: In pursuing what today seems like little more than witchcraft, the alchemists were in fact laying the foundation for modern experimental science. http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jul-aug/05-isaac-newton-worlds-most-famous-alchemist http://www.rsc.org/education/teachers/resources/alchemy/index2.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/education/activities/3217_newton.html