Alchemy

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2005

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Alchemy, the ancient science of transformations. The most famous alchemical text is the Emerald Tablet, written around 500BC and attributed to the mythical Egyptian figure of Hermes Trismegistus. Among its twelve lines are the essential words - “as above, so below". They capture the essence of alchemy, that the heavens mirror the earth and that all things correspond to one another. Alchemy was taken up by some of the most extraordinary people in our intellectual development, including Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, the father of chemistry, Robert Boyle, and, most famously, Isaac Newton, who wrote more about alchemy than he did about physics. It is now contended that it was Newton’s studies into alchemy which gave him the fundamental insight into the famous three laws of motion and gravity.With Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London, Lauren Kassell, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, at the end of the 16th century, the German alchemist Heinrich Kunrat wrote,
0:18.0	Darkness will appear on the face of the abyss.
0:21.0	Night, Saturn, and the antimony of the sages will appear, blackness and the ravens
0:26.2	head of the alchemists and all the colours of the world will appear at the hour of conjunction,
0:31.4	the rainbow also, and the peacock's tail.
0:35.0	Finally, after the matter has passed from ashen-colored to white and yellow, you will see
0:40.0	the philosopher's stone.
0:42.0	This is the language of alchemy. It's cryptic and coded, symbolic
0:46.6	and secretive. Isaac Newton wrote more manuscripts on alchemy in like language than on anything else.
0:53.9	And Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, described himself as an alchemist.
0:59.0	What was the essence of alchemy, its history and legacy, and how much more was it than a rapacious desire to turn
1:05.1	base metals into gold.
1:07.1	With me to discuss alchemy is Lauren Castle, lecturer in the history and philosophy of science at the
1:11.4	University of Cambridge, Stephen Pumphrey, senior lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Cambridge, Stephen Pumphrey, Senior Lecture in the History of
1:14.9	of Science at the University of Lancaster, and Peter Forshaw a lecturer in Renaissance philosophers
1:19.6	at Birkbeck University of London.
1:21.8	Peter Forshaw, alchemists were interested in seeing the origins of the art in the Bible,
1:27.3	but there was one key non-biblical text that was very important.
1:31.8	It's called Emerald Tablets, supposedly written by Hermes Trismegistus in about the 500 BC in Egypt.
1:38.8	Can you describe why that was so significant?
	...

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