—Scholars Land Alchemy Cache “Chemical Heritage Foundation acquires a collection of rare medieval alchemy texts” In the dim illumination of a library devoted to protecting ancient books from light degradation, James R. Voelkel gingerly picks up a nearly 600-year-old alchemy text. Written by hand sometime around 1438, the thick tome is bound by a leather and wooden cover that is studded with metal nails in the shape of a hexagonal star lying within a circular disk.
by Sarah Everts | January 13, 2014
This was the dream of the ancient alchemists, and Soddy called the process “transmutation,” a term he borrowed from alchemy. Rutherford and Soddy advanced a disintegration theory of radioactivity explaining how this process occurred. They were the first to calculate the tremendous amount of energy that could be evolved during radioactive transmutations.
by George B. Kauffman | December 02, 2013
—With Extra Care, A New Mercury Azide Is Made And Analyzed “The first nitrido-metal azide with a 3-D network structure is characterized” Mercury-containing substances have fascinated scientists since the days of alchemy. Millon’s base, [Hg2N]OH•2H2O, and calomel, Hg2Cl2, are classic examples. But mercury-laden substances are toxic, and when paired only with nitrogen, they are explosive, making them difficult to study.
September 23, 2013
But it’s something that Anderson—who is currently vice president of Clare Hall, a college at England’s Cambridge University; chairman of the Society for the History of Alchemy & Chemistry; and vice chair of the Chemical Heritage Foundation—has been thinking about since the 1970s. In 1970, after completing a Ph.D. in chemistry at England’s Oxford University, Anderson took a job at the Royal Scottish Museum, in Edinburgh.
by Bethany Halford | October 22, 2012
He also studied the osotriazoles of sugars and anthracycline antibiotics, as well as the history of alchemy in ancient societies. He was an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1963. He is survived by a daughter, Samiha Lamerson; son, Saad; five grandsons; and one great-grandson. El Khadem’s wife of 51 years, Nadia, died in 2002.
by Susan J. Ainsworth | September 24, 2012
—Geisha Alchemy “A talent for distillation was the profession’s best-kept beauty secret” Japan’s enigmatic geisha have always been more complex than the stereotypes about them might suggest. Just ask Victoria Tsai. In 2009, the former finance professional turned her longtime fascination with the geisha into her own skin care company, Tatcha.
by Carmen Drahl | May 07, 2012
Arthur Greenberg, a chemistry professor at the University of New Hampshire, presented a lecture on the history of chemistry and alchemy as part of Chem Fest 2011 at the University of Maine. In the nation’s capital, the Chemical Society of Washington, in cooperation with the National Children’s Museum, participated in the Kidtacular fall festival, which was held on Oct. 30 in conjunction with the Marine Corps Marathon.
by Linda Wang | December 19, 2011
—Lawrence Principe “Chemist and historian studies alchemy to fully understand modern chemistry’s evolution” When Lawrence M. Principe tries to reproduce someone else’s experiment, he doesn’t turn to the Materials & Methods sections of articles published in the likes of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
by Lauren K. Wolf | August 29, 2011
Some historians believe that the word “alchemy,” from which “chemistry” is derived, is a corruption of the word khemia or keme, which literally means “the black land,” an ancient name for the land along the banks of the Nile, where the flooding river would transform the color of the soil during inundation.
by Ahmed H. Zewail | March 28, 2011
Shin, alchemy@csun.edu; J. F. Baumwirt, jbaumwirt@ghchs.com Impact that General Education Courses Have on the Understanding of the Nature of Science. P. M. Mayo, mayop@ipfw.edu International Initiatives in the Study of Chemistry. M. Koether, mkoether@kennesaw.edu James Bryant Conant Award Symposium.
August 23, 2010