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Distilling knowledge : alchemy, chemistry, and the scientific revolution /
Reacting to the perception that the break, early on in the scientific revolution, between alchemy and chemistry was clean and abrupt, Moran literately and engagingly recaps what was actually a slow process. Far from being the superstitious amalgam it is now considered, alchemy was genuine science be...
| Call Number: | Libro Electrónico |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Cambridge, Mass. :
Harvard University Press,
2005.
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| Series: | New histories of science, technology, and medicine.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Texto completo |
| Summary: | Reacting to the perception that the break, early on in the scientific revolution, between alchemy and chemistry was clean and abrupt, Moran literately and engagingly recaps what was actually a slow process. Far from being the superstitious amalgam it is now considered, alchemy was genuine science before and during the scientific revolution. The distinctive alchemical procedure--distillation--became the fundamental method of analytical chemistry, and the alchemical goal of transmuting "base metals" into gold and silver led to the understanding of compounds and elements. What alchemy very gradually but finally lost in giving way to chemistry was its spiritual or religious aspect, the linkages it discerned between purely physical and psychological properties. Drawing saliently from the most influential alchemical and scientific texts of the medieval to modern epoch (especially the turbulent and eventful seventeenth century), Moran fashions a model short history of science volume |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (210 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-199) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780674041226 0674041224 9780674014954 0674014952 0674266153 9780674266155 |