Kit Chapman, "The Age of Alchemy: How Early Innovators Shaped Modern Chemistry" (Profile Books, 2026)

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**SPEAKER_1** (1:31)
Welcome to The New Books Network.

**Gregory McNiff** (1:35)
Welcome to The New Books Network. I'm your host, Gregory McNiff, and I'm thrilled to be joined by Kit Chapman, the author of The Age of Alchemy, How Early Innovators Shaped Modern Chemistry, published by Greystone Books in October of 2026 Kit Chapman is an award winning science journalist and academic at Falmouth University. He is formerly an editor at Chemistry World. His work has appeared in Nature, New Scientist, The Daily Telegraph, and BBC Science Focus. He holds a master's in pharmacy from the University of Bradford and a PhD in the history of philosophy of science from the University of Sunderland. His previous books are Super Heavy, Making and Breaking the Periodic Table, and Racing Green, How Motorsport Science Can Save the World. I can personally vouch the second book is a phenomenal read.
Why I selected The Age of Alchemy? Most histories of chemistry focus on famous scientists and landmark discoveries, and Kit definitely talks about them. But his book takes a broader and I would argue, a more human approach, highlighting the forgotten people, cultures, and ideas, and to some extent, he sets the record straight on the foundations of modern chemistry. I think all of us think of alchemy as kind of in the same bucket as astrology, sort of a pseudoscience, but Kit does a really nice job of showing how it did lay the foundations for chemistry.
He not only combines serious historical scholarship, but in a very engaging manner, making an ideal book for the New Books Network audience. I'm thrilled to have Kit here. Kit, thank you very much for joining me.

**Kit Chapman** (3:07)
Thank you for having me.

**Gregory McNiff** (3:08)
Kit, I ask all my authors this opening question. Why did you write this book and who is the target audience?

**Kit Chapman** (3:16)
One of the things I found when I was working for Chemistry World is that quite often science books preach to the choir. We're talking to people who are already engaged with science, and there's a lot of misconception about what science is. I think part of the job of a science communicator is realizing science is just a different language. It's translating it the same as you translate Spanish into English or French into German. I wanted to write a science book explaining the history of chemistry for a general audience, making it as accessible as possible. The gold standard for that is I always run it past my mom. My mom has no science background whatsoever.
She was a dental hygienist and if she can get it, if she finds it engaging and interesting and understands what's going on with the science, then as far as I'm concerned, that's a win.

**Gregory McNiff** (4:02)
Perfect. I think you probably accomplished that. Definitely accomplished that. Before we get into the book, what was interesting about this is it is roughly an historical overview, but in some ways it's a geographical overview.
We joked about this before the interview started. Your passport, I'm sure, is overflowing with stamps, either the analog version or digital. But could you talk about how you thought about the structure? I know you do roughly start off at the Stone Age and end in the modern day notions of chemistry, but was it primarily chronological? Were you thinking geographical? How did you organize the book? Because there's a lot going on here.