A story of alchemy in Bohemian Paris, where two scientific outcasts
discovered a fundamental distinction between natural and synthetic
chemicals that inaugurated an enduring scientific mystery.
For centuries, scientists believed that living matter possessed a
special quality--a spirit or essence--that differentiated it from
nonliving matter. But by the nineteenth century, the scientific
consensus was that the building blocks of one were identical to the
building blocks of the other. Elixir tells the story of two young
chemists who were not convinced, and how their work rewrote the boundary
between life and nonlife.
In the 1830s, Édouard Laugier and Auguste Laurent were working in
Laugier Père et Fils, the oldest perfume house in Paris. By day they
prepared the perfumery's revitalizing elixirs and rejuvenating eaux,
drawing on alchemical traditions that equated a plant's vitality with
its aroma. In their spare time they hunted the vital force that promised
to reveal the secret to life itself. Their ideas, roundly condemned by
established chemists, led to the discovery of structural differences
between naturally occurring molecules and their synthetic counterparts,
even when the molecules were chemically identical.
Scientists still can't explain this anomaly, but it may point to
critical insights concerning the origins of life on Earth. Rich in
sparks and smells, brimming with eccentric characters, experimental
daring, and the romance of the Bohemian salon, Elixir is a fascinating
cultural and scientific history.
