How the methods repeat themselves.

[Omeganian]

I've been reading a book called "Can Gold be Made" by Klaus Hoffmann, about the history of alchemy and nuclear physics. A nice work, except for all the political tones (it was written in East Germany in 1979). Now, I got to the part about alchemy in 1920-s, soon after nuclear physics started developing. Here are some quotes (note, I'm using a Soviet translation, so no guarantees about accuracy):



1925. A book called "The Victory of Alchemy":

These days, an axe is already raised over the roots of Lavoisier's orthodoxal theory of elements, although no one dares yet to bring it down.

About François Jollivet-Castelot, a founder and head of Societe alchimique de France:

Castelot cared nothing for modern methods and would hear nothing about the destruction of the atoms:

This crude method, which I would call anarchic, destroys matter, but does not allow recombining back.

A journal called "The archive of alchemical research" on Castelot's situation:

The well known caste spirit of university bosses does not allow them to consider valuable the works of an outsider, especially when they are in contradiction with the academical science.

Sounds eerily familiar...

[Esquire]

Could you expand? I don't see anything particularly noteworthy in the two statements being similar; the second is describing the situation that inspired the first.

If you're suggesting that there's some sort of grand academic conspiracy suppressing alchemical knowledge... well, that's a different question, and I'll let people better acquainted with scientific publishing standards handle it.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Oh for fuck's sake ...

That's my first reaction. You can, absolutely, make gold ... it happens via neutron capture in supernovae. Where it doesn't happen is in pseudoscientific bullshit alchemy ... which has all the hallmarks of crank pseudoscience, by the way. (This should be self-evident from your quoted texts, where alchemy researchers claim a sort of institutional conspiracy/bias against their work.)

[K. A. Pital]

'Alchemy researchers'? Since when quacks can hold the title of researchers, anyway?

[Simon_Jester]

If you use alchemical apparatus to turn lead into gold, you will necessarily have used enough radiation that the side-scatter will leave you fried to crispy bacon.

Therefore, we can determine the success and honesty of an alchemist by how dead they are.