I have been writing a book about gold, including a chapter on the ancient art of alchemy. Alchemy is a paradox. On the one hand, it is bogus science. You cannot turn base metals into gold. A universal ...

A humble bacterium named Cupriavidus metallidurans can survive in soils surrounded by toxic metals. It has the unique ability ...

Part of the appeal of the Boyle myth may be that it promised a clean break: a waymark at which alchemy was cast aside and chemistry took over. But such changes rarely if ever happen in science, and ...

A cartoon drawing shows a robed, bearded man with a pet weasel on his shoulder as he examines a piece of paper while sitting at a table containing a book, a flask, and a chunk of gold. Affirmation for ...