Is Gold Yellow? Plant Dyes and Gold-Making in the Ancient Chemical Arts.

Ancient Greek colour terminology captures brightness, light, and brilliance rather than clear-cut portions of the chromatic spectrum, as scholars agree today. This also applies to the rich semantic of yellow, which we investigate starting from a philosophical and theoretical perspective. We then shift our focus to Graeco-Roman technical writings dealing with alchemical dyes, cosmetics, and other crafts that made use of the same set of ingredients and colouring substances. We compile a complete list of yellow-dyeing plants used in antiquity, which will update and enlarge the lists currently available in secondary literature on the topic, such as the seminal catalogue by Robert J. Forbes. Drawing on these data and on laboratory reconstructions, we address two main questions. First, which shades of yellow were usually associated with the colour of gold, and how were these tints produced by ancient craftsmen and alchemists? And second, how did these procedures contribute to the ancient discourse on the colour of gold and its artificial reproduction?

Citrination and its Discontents: Yellow as a Sign of Alchemical Change.

Many of the "signs and tokens" described in alchemical texts relate to colour, from the Crow's Bill signifying putrefaction to the philosophical solvents disguised as Green Lions, Red Dragons, and Grey Wolves. While the process of yellowing, or citrination, often appears in medieval recipes, it seems to have interested commentators less than the more familiar processes of blackening, whitening, or reddening. Yet beyond these canonical colours, yellowness turns out to be ubiquitous in alchemy and its associated craft practices, both in Latin texts and vernacular translations. This paper uses source criticism and experimental reconstruction to interrogate the role of yellowness at the beginning, middle, and end of practice, focusing on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England. As starting ingredients, yellow vitriol and litharge offered the potential for transmutation but also posed problems for identification and preparation. As an intermediate stage, yellowness offered promising signs of future success, in the form of dramatic colour changes and unexpected products. But yellowness also offered an end in itself, as appears from the many citrination processes attested in recipe collections which aimed to imitate the properties of gold - suggesting that yellowing was prized as a significant indicator of chemical change across diverse areas of craft practice.

Accurately Predicting Protein pKa Values Using Nonequilibrium Alchemy.

The stability, solubility, and function of a protein depend on both its net charge and the protonation states of its individual residues. pKa is a measure of the tendency for a given residue to (de)protonate at a specific pH. Although pKa values can be resolved experimentally, theory and computation provide a compelling alternative. To this end, we assess the applicability of a nonequilibrium (NEQ) alchemical free energy method to the problem of pKa prediction. On a data set of 144 residues that span 13 proteins, we report an average unsigned error of 0.77 ± 0.09, 0.69 ± 0.09, and 0.52 ± 0.04 pK for aspartate, glutamate, and lysine, respectively. This is comparable to current state-of-the-art predictors and the accuracy recently reached using free energy perturbation methods (e.g., FEP+). Moreover, we demonstrate that our open-source, pmx-based approach can accurately resolve the pKa values of coupled residues and observe a substantial performance disparity associated with the lysine partial charges in Amber14SB/Amber99SB*-ILDN, for which an underused fix already exists.

Nursing Alchemy: Transforming R-CHOP Information Into Essentials.

A combination of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) is a first-line combination chemotherapy regimen for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that has many nursing implications. Understand.

The Archaeology of Alchemy and Chemistry: Past, Present, and Ideas for the Future.

The materials and practices of chymical procedures have become key sources of information among science historians, opening up channels for cross-disciplinary dialogue. This is especially true with regard to material culture-based disciplines such as archaeology whose bottom-up approach offers significant contributions to the new historiography of science. Parallel to this trend, some archaeological scientists who specialise in reconstructing past technologies have begun to address questions concerning the production and circulation of scientific knowledge, and have focused as well on the contributions of artists/artisans to the development of natural philosophical theories. This essay charts the history of this archaeology of alchemy and chemistry and its development as a sub-discipline of archaeological science. By mapping this history, from an initial period with a focus on metallurgy to current trends, it demonstrates how the archaeology of alchemy and chemistry both mirrors and, at the same time, feeds the broadening scope of the historiography of science. After surveying the most relevant works and highlighting the key contributions that archaeologists have brought to a discourse related to the creation of scientific knowledge, the essay also offers a series of ideas related to materials awaiting comprehensive study that will further strengthen methodological synergies across disciplines.

Deciphering the Hermeticae Philosophiae Medulla: Textual Cultures of Alchemical Secrecy.

This article presents the decryption, historical analysis, and alchemical interpretation of an alchemical cipher found in a shared notebook of John and Arthur Dee (British Library MS Sloane 1902). The cipher is an early example of a Bellaso/Della Porta/Vigenère type, a strong encryption method which was historically deemed indecipherable. The essay explores the medical and alchemical context for the manuscript into which the cipher was copied and provides the transcription, plaintext solution (in Latin), and English translation of the encrypted text. Further, it interprets the enciphered text through the lens of alchemical practice and provides evidence for the dissemination of this cipher as part of a larger alchemical knowledge network.

Environmental Alchemy: Mercury-Gold Amalgamation Mining and the Transformation of the Earth.

Wherever mercury-gold amalgamation mining unfolds, alchemical processes abound. They are there as catalytic agents forming amalgams at atomic levels. They are there as cultural agents transforming rocks into cell phones and all kinds of consumer goods. And they are there as ideological agents mutually translating human understandings across whole worlds we describe as the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. These processes, we argue, are made more legible - more readily perceived and conceptualised - by peering through the lens of environmental alchemy, a new critical framework in which we apply the historical use of alchemical terms to investigations of environmental change, and to understand the extraordinary complexity that gold and mercury set in motion when mining entangles nature and culture.

From alchemy to personalised medicine: the journey of laboratory medicine.

This review summarises the long period in which man has approached nature to understand its powers, and has tried to control it through physical and chemical, and also magical, practices. From the attempt to manage nature to the development of primordial drugs and medical practices and later to achieve modern biomedical science, laboratory practices always played a pivotal role. Over the years and centuries, the laboratory has acquired more and more importance in the improvement of health.In addition to the well-known importance of laboratory medicine in the early diagnosis and appropriateness, the discoveries of the last 50 years have also given the Laboratory a decisive role in regenerative and personalised medicine.This paper examines the evolution of the laboratory and is not meant to be a treatise on the history of medicine. The goal is to highlight the moments of the transition from magic and alchemy to laboratory science.-------------------------------Roberto Verna is President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and President of the Academy for Health and Clinical Research.

Metals as Living Bodies. Founts of Mercury, Amalgams, and Chrysocolla.

Ancient and medieval alchemical works include several comparisons between the generation and development of metals and those of plants, animals, and living beings. These comparisons could refer to adopt physiological models in the explanation of the natural formation of metals and their artificial transformation, to justify the place occupied by alchemy within the broader study of the natural world, and to stand as metaphorical descriptions of specific alchemical procedures. This article analyses these features by focusing on the relationship between mercury and gold, the latter being the "perfect" metal that constituted both an ambitious goal of alchemical practice and one of its key ingredients. The interrelationship between gold and mercury emerges in complex myths about metallic rivers, in the use of gold-mercury amalgams in ancient technology, and in the discussion that alchemists developed around the enigmatic chrysocolla (literally "gold solder"). These three foci are discussed in relation to a variety of ancient sources - from Aristotle and the Stoics to late antique, Byzantine, and Syriac alchemical texts - to explore the different forms of conceptualising metals as living bodies and the interactions of these models with ancient theories on the formation of metals and the alchemical practices aimed at their transformation.

Chemistry, Medicine, and Gold-Making: Tycho Brahe, Helwig Dieterich, Otto Tachenius, and Johann Glauber.

17th century chemistry was concerned largely with iatrochemistry (medicinal chemistry) and the transmutation of metals, especially with the purpose of making gold. Thus, Johann Rudolph Glauber made a living making and selling chemicals such as nitric acid and medicaments such as aurum potabile (drinkable gold), but he also believed in the transmutation or "improvement" of metals and the "augmentation" of gold, and he sold recipes for such processes. This perspective aims to provide a snapshot of the range of 17th century chemistry by analysis of the efforts of four representatives to make drugs, chemicals, and gold. It will be concluded that early modern chemists were unable to break out from the conceptual doctrines imposed by Aristotle and Paracelsus, which made transmutation perfectly logical. No further scientific advance could be made until the idea that all things are composed of the same basic constituents was abandoned in favour of the atomic theory.

Thinking about Chemistry in Byzantium and the Islamic World.

This article investigates several discussions of "chemistry," understood as an analysts' category referring to theories and practices dealing with the structure and transformation of matter. By reading these texts (a treatise defending kimiya' by al-Farabi, the famous passage from Ibn Sina's Shifa' on transmutation, Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwa against kimiya', Michael Psellos's treatise On Making Gold, and the same author's Accusation against a sitting Patriarch of Constantinople), the article aims to lay the groundwork for integrating the historiography of Byzantine and Arabic alchemy into a wider western Eurasian intellectual history.

The Alchemy of Coaching: Psychological Capital as HERO within Coaches' Selves.

The complex nature of coaching challenges instructional coaches (ICs) professionally as it requires them to deal with not only teachers' resistance, acceptance and expectation but also adhere to the complex and multifaceted roles that they are bearing. Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been upheld as an effective construct for defending against stress, negative emotions and burnout among educators. This phenomenological study explores ways in which PsyCap was experienced by Malaysian instructional coaches (ICs). Data were gathered from face-to-face interviews with seven instructional coaches purposefully selected from six different District Education Offices (DEOs) throughout Malaysia. Extracted from participants' own words and through the exploration performed, PsyCap was experienced by the participants through a sense of responsibility, positive resources and work commitment. This study highlights the importance of PsyCap as inner positive psychological resources that aided instructional coaches in their practice of coaching. In addition, this study suggests future research recommendations towards implementing PsyCap developmental training with another group of instructional coaches.

Photonuclear Alchemy: Obtaining Medical Isotopes of Gold from Mercury Irradiated on Electron Accelerators.

In our work, the photonuclear production of 198,199Au isotopes for nuclear medicine purposes was studied, and a method for their recovery from irradiated mercury was developed. The yields of the corresponding nuclear reactions were determined, and a comparison of various methods of obtaining gold radioisotopes was provided. New sorbents based on benzo-15-crown-5, which selectively binds gold, were studied, and the optimal conditions for Au recovery with a high degree of purification from mercury were found. It was established that, for the fast and quantitative recovery of Au isotopes, it was necessary to add at least 0.1 mg of the carrier. As a result, the developed method can be regularly used to obtain 198,199Au for the research of radiopharmaceuticals based on them.

Obtaining Consistent Free Energies for Ion Binding at Surfaces from Solution: Pathways versus Alchemy for Determining Kink Site Stability.

Ion incorporation or removal from a solid at the interface with solution is a fundamental part of crystal growth. Despite this, there have been few quantitative determinations of the thermodynamics for such processes from atomistic molecular dynamics due to the associated technical challenges. In this study, we compute the free energies for ion removal from kink sites at the interface between NaCl and water as an illustrative example. To examine the influence of the free energy technique used, we compare methods that follow an explicit pathway for dissolution with those that focus on the thermodynamics of the initial and final states using metadynamics and free energy perturbation, respectively. While the initial results of the two approaches are found to be completely different, it is demonstrated that the thermodynamics can be reconciled with appropriate corrections for the standard states, thus illustrating the need for caution in interpreting raw free energy curves for ion binding as widely found in the literature. In addition, a new efficient approach is introduced to correct for the system size dependence of kink site energies both due to the periodic interaction of charges in an inhomogeneous dielectric system and due to the dipolar interactions between pairs of kinks along a row. Ultimately, it is shown that with suitable care, both classes of free energy techniques are capable of producing kink site stabilities that are consistent with the solubility of the underlying bulk solid. However, the precise values for individual kink sites exhibit a small systematic offset, which can be ascribed to the contribution of the interfacial potential to the pathway-based results. For the case of NaCl, the free energies of the kink sites relative to a 1 M aqueous solution for Na+ and Cl- are found to be surprisingly different and of opposite sign, despite the ions having very similar hydration free energies.

[The status and significance of Paracelsus in the Modern Medical Revolution].

Paracelsus, the first person in the history of modern Western medicine, specified to break the shackles of the traditional medical system thoroughly and revolutionise the classical medical system completely. He introduced traditional alchemy into medicine, and changed it from making gold into producing drugs which were helpful to human health. He believed that nature and human were made by God with "three principles" - sulphur, salt and hydrargyrum. He also believed that human body, as a "chemical system", was full of a variety of chemical reactions. His ideas brought a new worldview, a chemical one, to the medical field influenced by the concept of"Humorism" for ages. The chemical worldview laid the foundation for "iatrochemistry" and channelled a path for the following medical development. The "three principles" of Paracelsus did not surpass the "Humorism" proposed by Galen in terms of underlining the balance of human health. However, the idea, that the mineral substances in nature in the "three principles" could be taken as medicines to help the recovery of human body, broke through the traditional medical system proposed by Galen, offered valuable ideological resources and experience for the following expansion and development of medicines.

Exploring the ancient chemistry of mercury.

This paper explores the chemistry of mercury as described in ancient alchemical literature. Alchemy's focus on the knowledge and manipulation of natural substances is not so different from modern chemistry's purposes. The great divide between the two is marked by the way of conceptualizing and recording their practices. Our interdisciplinary research group, composed of chemists and historians of science, has set off to explore the cold and hot extraction of mercury from cinnabar. The ancient written records have been perused in order to devise laboratory experiments that could shed light on the material reality behind the alchemical narratives and interpret textual details in a unique perspective. In this way, it became possible to translate the technical lore of ancient alchemy into the modern language of chemistry. Thanks to the replication of alchemical practices, chemistry can regain its centuries-long history that has fallen into oblivion.

Alquimia das palavras: extraindo o tempo das palavras / Alchemy of words: extracting time from words / Alquimia de las palabras: extracción del tiempo de las palabras

O presente artigo reflete sobre o poder e as substâncias que formam as palavras. Uma dificuldade, palavras a falar sobre palavras. Ideia, o tempo contido nas palavras. A poesia é a bússola na procura do caminho, e a alquimia, o mapa metafórico. O tempo como aspecto central, o tempo escondido nas palavras. Desenvolve-se a extração em paralelo à alquimia e a seus processos básicos, para se chegar ao espírito divino da matéria. Os estudos e conceitos da alquimia de C. G. Jung e E. Edinger são explorados para comparação entre as projeções de alquimistas e poetas. Sentir o tempo nas palavras, ajustar a escuta poética da clínica. Na poesia o tempo funciona diferentemente; o poeta é o que se aproxima da alma, ao juntar palavras. São essas palavras que quebram a rigidez dos relógios.

This article ponders on the power and substances that form words. Using words to talk about words is a difficult endeavor. Ideas are time contained in words, poetry, the compass in the search of the way, and alchemy, the metaphorical map. Time is a central aspect, as time is hidden in words. Extraction is developed in parallel with alchemy and its basic processes in order to arrive at the divine spirit of matter. The studies and concepts of alchemy of C. G. Jung and E. Edinger are explored in comparing the projections of alchemists and poets. Feeling time in the words to adjust poetic listening in clinic activities. In poetry, time works differently; the poet is the one who approaches the soul by putting words together. It is these words that break the iron frule of clocks.

Este artículo reflexiona sobre el poder y las sustancias que forman las palabras. Una dificultad, palabras hablando de palabras. Idea, el tiempo contenido en las palabras. La poesía es la brújula en la búsqueda del camino, y la alquimia, el mapa metafórico. El tiempo como aspecto central, el tiempo escondido en las palabras. La extracción se desarrolla en paralelo con la alquimia y sus procesos básicos, para llegar al espíritu divino de la materia. Se exploran los estudios y conceptos de alquimia de C. G. Jung y E. Edinger para comparar las proyecciones de alquimistas y poetas. Siente el tiempo en las palabras, ajusta la escucha poética de la clínica. En la poesía el tiempo funciona de otra manera; el poeta es el que se acerca al alma juntando palabras. Son estas palabras las que rompen la rigidez de los relojes.