Philosopher’s Stone

“Alchemy neither composes nor mixes: it increases and activates that which already exists in a latent state. Therefore, alchemy can be more accurately compared with botany or agriculture than with chemistry.” – Franz Hartmann (19^th century theosophist)

“Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and continues to flourish over a heart in ruin,” – Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831

Join me in doing some alchemy by making an online donation to RMBL. This e-newsletter that you read now is sent out to over 5,700 recipients every month, but only 14% of these monthly readers donate to RMBL.  Together, with your financial support, we can do some magic and science!

The emergence of science is intertwined with alchemy. The “great work” of European alchemists was using prime matter, the first matter that emerged from chaos, to create the philosopher’s stone. In turn, the philosopher’s stone was a mystical substance capable of providing health, everlasting life, and transforming common metals into silver and gold.

Alchemists worked on the border between chemistry, math, and mysticism at a time when natural philosophers were still working through what it meant to be a scientist. Isaac Newton, a key figure in the scientific revolution that laid the foundation for modern society and who birthed the laws of motion as well as calculus, was an alchemist. Producing gold from chaos would have been helpful in his role as Master of the Mint (1699-1727), given his responsibility for ensuring the British Empire’s currency.

Perhaps because chemists began making so much progress in the 1700s, revealing elements such as nickel, platinum and rare earth compounds as well as laying the foundation for our contemporary understanding of elements with atomic theory, alchemy is often thought of as a precursor of chemistry. Adam Smith didn’t publish An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations until 1776, so an endless supply of gold was a reasonable aspirational goal for Britain. But everlasting life, with strong parallels between the prime matter of alchemist’s prime matter and stem cells of biologists, was an important part of alchemy. Maybe “albiology” doesn’t have the same ring?

If you want to see true “albiology” in action, consider Gothic. First, indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from the landscape with the goal of transmuting functioning ecosystems into silver. Next, with neither silver nor gold, biologists gestated RMBL on the ruins of the mining ghost town.  Love, fueled by beauty and individual discovery, carried Gothic forward, as RMBL field scientists pursued the modern philosopher’s stone, ensuring an understanding of the ecosystem processes underpinning human life.

RMBL as an institution is in many ways miraculous. Perched several miles above sea level and only available without skiis for about half the year, RMBL makes no financial sense. Yet it persists, transmuting primarily blood, sweat, and tears into countless scientific discoveries and transforming generations of students. Any alchemist worth his or her salt, however, will tell you that any mystical recipe has lots of ingredients. In this instance, silver pays the bills!

If you are curious about how your financial support will be matched by love and passion, watch the three videos linked to this newsletter.  They are part of a larger series put together by Rocky Mountain PBS highlighting how the Inouye family have put down multi-generational roots to understand a changing world, the dedication of RMBL’s winter caretakers, and how RMBL staff help transform even the youngest scientists into the next generation of scientific leaders.