The Age of Alchemy

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 'Glittering' PHILIP BALL 'Superb' TIM MINSHALL 'A globetrotting, time-travelling account of the roots of chemistry' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE The first chemists were Sri Lankan forgers who crafted unimaginably strong steel millennia before it should have been possible. They were alchemists in Roman Egypt, who designed apparatus still in use today. They were Stone Age leatherworkers, Tang Dynasty herbalists and Mayan stoneworkers. The Enlightenment is usually credited with the origins of chemistry, but in truth, the science blossomed gradually. As early innovators distilled, smelted, forged and fermented their way through the centuries, they blurred science and mysticism in search of answers to life's greatest mysteries. Join Kit Chapman on a global quest to achieve immortality, cure all disease and transmute lead into gold as he reveals the illuminating stories of how the alchemists first broke new ground and shaped the scientific method.

Kit Chapman is an award-winning science communicator and adventurer. He has a masters degree in pharmacy, a PhD in the history of science, and is now a lecturer at Falmouth University. He has written for publications including Nature, New Scientist, Chemistry World and the Telegraph. His work has taken him to more than 100 countries to seek out amazing tales from the cutting edge of science.