Alchemy

The first thing you need to understand about alchemy, just to clarify, before we go any further, is that alchemy in it’s classic sense is at best a pseudoscience. As entertaining as the idea of turning common metals into gold is, the field eventually evolved into chemistry with the help of Antoine Lavoisier (and many others) in the 18^th century. That’s not to say that the endeavors of alchemy were all for naught.

            There is a process, called Nuclear Transmutation, in which atoms of one element can be changed into that of another by ‘transmutation’. This can occur in a nuclear reaction or through radioactive decay. Both of these reactions can happen in the natural and experimental world, but more on that later.

            The term transmutation dates back to the philosopher’s stone (which turns base metals into gold), but by 1720, not a single respectable figure pursued classical alchemy. Nuclear Transmutation was first applied to modern science when Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy observed that radioactive Thorium decayed into Radium in 1901. As the story goes, Soddy jumped up screaming: "Rutherford, this is transmutation!" And Rutherford snapped back, "For Christ's sake, Soddy, don't call it transmutation! They'll have our heads off as alchemists."

Years later, in 1932, the first fully artificial nuclear reaction was achieved by Rutherford’s colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton by using accelerated protons to split lithium. This was called “splitting the atom”, the modern term “Nuclear Fission” came along some time later.

It was transpired that under the principles of Nuclear Transmutation, it would be far easier to turn gold into lead than the converse. Experimentation has successfully achieved alchemists’ and King Midas’ dreams (some say as early as 1951), and found a reaction that yields gold, but the expense far outweighs any gain to be had.