Cutting-Edge Science Applies Ancient Advice

Chemistry, in one form or another, has been practiced for thousands of years--but for most of that time, it was more akin to wizardry than the hard science we know today. The alchemists of old wielded a strange and marvelous power, to mix two substances and create something entirely new, something that couldn't be separated back into its original parts...except by more alchemy. Through trial and error, mixing up ingredients that seemed like they might be powerful--smelly sulfur, or metals like m...