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A Science That Feels Like Magic

Have you ever watched Fullmetal Alchemist? This anime was hugely popular in the 2000s, telling the story of a boy who becomes entangled in the science of alchemy. The alchemy in this anime holds one sacred principle: the Law of Equivalent Exchange, that to obtain something, you must sacrifice something of equal value. It may sound like pure fiction, yet that very idea once formed the foundation of the science we now know as chemistry.

What Is Alchemy, Really?

Alchemy (from the Arabic al-kīmiyā, الكيمياء) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical tradition and protoscience practised across Chinese, Indian, Muslim, and European civilizations.

In its Western form, alchemy was first written down in a Greek book called Cheirokmeta, authored by Zosimos of Panopolis.

Ancient Greek alchemists described their craft as an art that was mystical (μυστική), sacred (ἵερά), or divine (θεία). They sought to create or purify base metals into chrysopoeia (gold) and to produce panaceas, medicines believed to cure every disease.

Alchemy in the Hands of Islamic Civilization

In Cheirokmeta, Zosimos asserted that alchemy originated in Ancient Egypt during the era of the pharaohs, though modern historical sources believe it was truly born in the city of Alexandria.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the centre of alchemical development moved to the Islamic world. Islamic alchemy is far better known because it was far better documented. In fact, most of the earliest writings that survive today reach us through Arabic translations.

Did Alchemy Give Birth to the Laboratory?

In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, Arabic works described an alchemical reform begun by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Ibn Hayyān introduced a theory of elements. With it, he sent Western alchemists racing to find the philosopher’s stone that could turn any metal into gold.

Yet the greatest contribution of Islamic alchemists to chemistry was the codification of laboratory procedure. Al-Razi systematically classified substances, apparatus, and procedures in Kitab al-Asrar. That book refined the processes of distillation, sublimation, and calcination inherited from the Greeks and Egyptians until they could be repeated by anyone.

The Alchemy Europe Borrowed

Alchemy only entered Latin Europe on 11 February 1144, through Robert of Chester’s translation of an Arabic treatise. In his preface he noted that this science was not yet known there at the time.

Throughout the 12th century, translations of Arabic works flourished in Toledo, Spain, carrying foreign terms into the field, words such as alcohol and elixir. Until the 13th century Europe did little more than translate. It reorganized the science neatly and built a structured system around it.

The turning point came in the 16th century with Paracelsus (1493–1541). He pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, giving rise to a different alchemy: not a way to make gold, but a way to make medicine.

Divorced Into Chemistry

In the 16th century Agricola, a metallurgist, became the first to drop the Arabic al- and write simply chymia or chymista, far closer to the word chemistry.

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) then pioneered the scientific method in chemistry. He did not speculate or dream; he recorded every piece of data. The location of the experiment, barometer readings, even the character of the wind and the position of the Sun were all kept in case they proved useful. That approach ultimately gave birth to modern chemistry.

By the 1740s the term “alchemy” had been narrowed to gold-making alone. As a result, the popular notion took hold that alchemists were frauds and that alchemy was nothing more than deception.

So, What Is Alchemy?

Renaissance academic writers deliberately divorced the new chemistry from the old practice in order to shield the science from alchemy’s poor reputation. The effort largely succeeded, and we still live with its consequences. We treat the two as separate, like myth and fact, when for centuries they were one and the same.

But when the writers of the new era divorced chemistry from alchemy in the 1720s, there was one thing they could not separate: its name. A whole set of terms with no Latin equivalent left their traces behind. Words like alcohol and al-kīmiyā, and those traces have never been erased.

So every time you write “chemistry” in a lab report, remember that an alchemist in Alexandria was doing much the same thing two thousand years ago.

What About Chemical Engineering, ChE?

In 1878, George E. Davis, an English chemical inspector and consultant, identified the basic repeating steps shared across different chemical processes, and so the term chemical engineering was first used by him.

Watching the chemical industry grow, the resemblance to alchemy becomes clear: humanity’s drive to create useful things and pursue perfection never really disappears. It has only been magnified by technology that keeps advancing with the times.

Today chemical engineering continues to develop in countless directions, but that is a discussion for another time.

Community Responses

References

• Alchemy. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 12 August 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
• Burckhardt, T. (1967). Alchemy: Science of the cosmos, science of the soul (W. Stoddart, Trans.). Penguin.
• Holmyard, E. J. (1957). Alchemy. Penguin Books.
• Moureau, S. (2020). Min al-kīmiyāʾ ad alchimiam: The transmission of alchemy from the Arab-Muslim world to the Latin West in the Middle Ages. Micrologus, 28, 87–141.
• Pereira, M. (2018). Alchemy. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy. Routledge.
• Principe, L. M. (2011). Alchemy restored. Isis, 102(2), 305–312.
• Principe, L. M. (2013). The secrets of alchemy. University of Chicago Press.
• Principe, L. M., & Newman, W. R. (2001). Some problems with the historiography of alchemy. In W. R. Newman & A. Grafton (Eds.), Secrets of nature: Astrology and alchemy in early modern Europe. MIT Press.

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Meet the Experts Looking Beyond the Barrel

• Nasifa AndjaniGraduate Process Engineer · BP
• ArrimanProcess Technology Engineer · Tripatra
• AfifConsultant · AFRY
• Farhan YustiarzaExpert in Sustainable Fuels Safety · Wärtsilä

Q1 · The Role of Oil & Gas in the Energy Transition

The energy transition is discussed everywhere right now. From your perspective, what role does the oil & gas industry play in supporting the shift toward more sustainable energy?

“We can’t quit oil & gas yet. And that’s okay.”

The real goal isn’t elimination, it’s decarbonization.

Q2 · The Biggest Barrier to Sustainability

What is the biggest challenge in applying sustainability in the oil and gas industry today? Does it come more from technology, economics, regulation, or people?

“Innovation is useless if nobody can afford it.”

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Q3 · Which Innovation Delivers Real Impact?

CCUS, green hydrogen, AI for process optimization, green refineries: which innovation holds the most potential for real impact in the next 10 to 20 years, and why?

“Which tech actually wins in 20 years?”

Two engineers, two different bets.

Q4 · Is Oil & Gas Really Against Sustainability?

Many people still see the oil and gas industry as contradicting the idea of sustainability. How do you respond to that view?

“Fossil fuel isn’t the enemy. Carbon is.”

Stop asking fossil vs renewable. Start asking captured vs released.

Q5 · Skills Young Engineers Actually Need

Looking at how the industry is developing, which soft skills and hard skills do young engineers need most in order to contribute during the energy transition?

“Your degree is the minimum, not the edge.”

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Q6 · A Message for Chemical Engineering Students

What is your message for Chemical Engineering students who want to build a career in oil and gas while contributing to sustainable development?

“Every role has room for impact. Find yours.”

Advice from those who have already walked the path.

Five Observations From the LSE Business Review

Drawing on an article in the LSE Business Review by Daniel Litvin (27 November 2023), there are five key observations on sustainability in the oil and gas industry.

1. Address scope 3 emissions. Most of the industry still focuses on reaching net zero within its own operations (scope 1 and 2 of production) and has not yet tackled scope 3, the combustion of oil and gas by the people who use the product.
2. Tackle the whole industry. Campaigns pushing oil and gas toward renewable energy do have an effect, but the transition has to be systemic rather than left to individual companies.
3. Overcome competitive barriers. Competition within the industry holds back production cuts and low-carbon investment, including CCUS technology and blue hydrogen.
4. Strengthen collaboration. Collaboration between companies and governments is needed to accelerate the rollout of low-carbon technology.
5. Ensure a just transition. The energy transition must take into account the workers, regions, and countries that depend on the oil and gas industry.

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