Transmutation approach

Hansson, Daniela Stefani. Alchemical and new scientific approaches to the concept of transmutation. Alchemy J 6, no. 3 (Autumn 2005). [http //www.alchemylab.com/AJ6-3.htm Alchemical and New],... 

In the earlier sections, we have developed the theoretical framework for the FEP approach. In this section, we outline some specific methodologies built upon this framework to calculate the free energy differences associated with the transformation of a chemical species into a different one. This computational process is often called alchemical transformation because, in a sense, this is a realization of the inaccessible dream of the proverbial alchemist - to transmute matter. Yet, unlike lead, which was supposed to turn into gold in the alchemist s furnace, the potential energy function is sufficiently malleable in the hands of the computational chemist that it can be gently altered to transform one chemical system into another, slightly modified one. 

When the Sun in the winter pursues his course far away from us, he cannot melt the deep snow. But in the summer he approaches nearer to us, the quality of the air becomes more fiery, and the snow melts and is transmuted by warmth into water. For that which is weak is always compelled to yield to that which is strong. 

If a chemically reactive system is isolated from the rest of lhe universe at a constant temperature and pressure, a definite end-point is often attained short of the complete transmutation of reactants into resultants. In order to be certain that this end-point (short or complete transmutation) is whal is known as the equilibrium point, the equilibrium must he approached... 

Man himself is the primary subject of the Hermetic Art. It is useless to try to make the Philosopher s Stone outside oneself before one has approached the first part of the operation, which slowly transforms the operator himself into the Living Stone. Only then will the Alchemist possess the necessary skill and understanding of subtle forces to complete the work of making an actual substance with the power to transmute other bodies. 

An independent and very important sphere for the application of operator-network approaches is represented by evolutionary stereochemistry, where the structural-electronic level of mapping chemical properties and their mutual transmutations are considered in terms of their spatial evolution, i.e. the variation of their symmetry and configurational characteristics (the latter for chiral structures) is considered. 

George Steiner advocates a similar approach in After Babel, Aspects of Language and Translation (London, Oxford, New York Oxford University Press, 1975), where he underlines the study of all meaningful exchanges of the totality of semantic communication (including Jakobson s intersemiotic translation or transmutation ) as the most instructive trend in translation studies (p. 279). 

But why did the Academie, or at least Fontenelle and Lemery, think it so important to denounce transmutation and other arcana, especially when there was no new evidence to back up their claims Here we approach the second of the important changes I identified in the chemistry of the early eighteenth century - namely the status of chemists and chemistry. In the late seventeenth century, chemistry suffered from a very bad public relations problem. For example, theatregoers to the Paris season of 1693-94 were regaled by Les Souffleurs, ou la Pierre Philosophale d Arlequin, a comedy in the Italian style that depicts a herd of both fools and charlatans, both of them consistently called chimistes (the play never uses the word alchimie or alchimiste). It even contained a satirical song about the marvels and promises of la chimie. 41 At about the same time, as the records of the Bastille indicate, several chymists were... 

One of the greatest members of the Royal Society was Isaac Newton. Newton was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1702 and became its president in 1703, a post he held until his death, in 1727. Newton had already established his power as a scientist with his work on physics and mathematics, demonstrated principally in his famous book Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, or, more commonly, the Principia. Like Boyle, Newton claimed to be following Baconian method and looked at the universe from a mechanical point of view. Unlike Boyle, Newton was much closer to Gassendi on the nature of matter. His analysis of physics was based in large part on the properties of matter, particularly the property of gravity, which he argued was inherent in anything that contained mass. For many years, Newton s ideas about physics were widely known, but Newton was also very interested in alchemy and believed in transmutation. In part because alchemy was discredited later, this part of Newton s scientific work was not often mentioned by historians, but it is now clear that his alchemical work influenced both his approach to science and his belief in certain properties of matter that were used in his physics. 

This kind of philosophy, emanating from someone with as strong a personality as Paracelsus, had an immeasurable influence on the theories of the alchemists. In the sense that it made all practical work much more difficult to conceive, it is certainly true that Paracelsus doctrine encouraged a more mystic approach to alchemy. So, on the one hand, he was claimed by those looking to alchemy for medical cures as the father of medical chemistry. On the other hand, he was regarded by those turning from practical experiments in transmutation to contemplation as the founder of mystic alchemy. 

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