Reach through time and across continents to see the history of chemistry as it's never been told

'Glittering' PHILIP BALL 'Superb' TIM MINSHALL 'A globetrotting, time-travelling account of the roots of chemistry' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE The first chemists were Sri Lankan forgers who crafted unimaginably strong steel millennia before it should have been possible. They were alchemists in Roman Egypt, who designed apparatus still in use today. They were Stone Age leatherworkers, Tang Dynasty herbalists and Mayan stoneworkers. The Enlightenment is usually credited with the origins of chemistry, but in truth, the science blossomed gradually. As early innovators distilled, smelted, forged and fermented their way through the centuries, they blurred science and mysticism in search of answers to life's greatest mysteries. Join Kit Chapman on a global quest to achieve immortality, cure all disease and transmute lead into gold as he reveals the illuminating stories of how the alchemists first broke new ground and shaped the scientific method.

"Hugely entertaining ... a globetrotting, time-travelling account of the roots of chemistry" - BBC History Magazine

"Fascinating... argues that alchemists and early experiments, were not a wrong turn off the road to modern scientific method, but an essential part of the journey" - BBC Start the Week

"PRAISE FOR KIT CHAPMAN" - :

"Chapman writes engagingly about the benefits motor racing has brought to a climate problem that needs all hands on the wheel" - Financial Times