Age of Alchemy How Early Innovators Shaped Modern Chemistry

The Age of Alchemy follows the long global journey from mystical alchemy to modern chemistry. Kit Chapman explores the people and processes that transformed humanity’s understanding of matter: Sri Lankan steelmakers forging remarkable high-carbon steel, Roman Egyptian alchemists developing laboratory apparatus, early perfumers, Stone Age leatherworkers, Tang dynasty herbalists, Mayan stoneworkers, and experimenters seeking immortality or the secret of turning lead into gold. The book shows how distillation, smelting, fermentation, pigments, medicines, metallurgy, and material experimentation created essential foundations for modern scientific practice. Blending travel, history, chemistry, and vivid stories of discovery, it reframes science as a collective achievement shaped by many cultures, not a single place or era. The book was published by Profile Books in 2026 and was shortlisted for the 2026 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.