Before there was the modern science of chemistry, there was its forerunner: the medieval science of alchemy. In the chemistry of alchemy, there was as much superstition and wishful thinking guiding the experiments as there was knowledge and experience. Among the alchemists' most frenzied quests was the search for the touchstone that magical element which would transmute the properties of one baser substance into that of a higher substance most notably gold. For centuries alchemists' cauldrons brewed and pots bubbled over with countless attempts to magically transmute common, inexpensive substances into that glistening golden prize.

Medieval alchemists never found the touchstone that could so rearrange the basic molecular structure of an element that it could turn into an entirely new elem…