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Golden Fever & the Soviet Reception of Medieval Alchemy - Paul Ferguson - 11-28-2023
"At the very beginning of the twentieth century, alchemy became popular again, after long oblivion. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) received the Nobel Prize in 1908 for the “transmutation” of radioactive thorium into helium, which he conducted in 1901. After that, Rutherford wrote a book with the catchy title The Newer Alchemy. The law of radioactive decay, formulated by Rutherford, implied the gradual transformation of one substance into another. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the press these experiments were perceived as the return of alchemy. Many other scientists pursued the modern “philosopher’s stone” under the influence of new inventions and articles published by the Alchemical Dociety in London, formed in 1912 and including both occultists and many significant scientists, chemists and physicists, like John Ferguson (1837–1916), and Herbert Stanley Redgrove (1887–1943). The goal of the Alchemical Society was to search for alchemical wisdom in ancient texts to implement this knowledge to the modern areas of scientific research."
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/blog/golden_fever_in/