author
Arthur John Hopkins
1864–1939
A chemist and teacher by profession, he wrote with unusual curiosity about the long, tangled history of alchemy. His work brings together science, philosophy, and the strange ideas that linked them in earlier centuries.
1 Audiobook
The reaction between manganese dioxide and potassium permanganate
by Arthur John Hopkins
About the author
Born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on September 20, 1864, he graduated from Amherst College in 1885 and later earned a PhD at Johns Hopkins University. After teaching in Massachusetts and New York, he returned to Amherst, where he spent much of his career as a professor of chemistry.
Alongside his scientific work, he developed a lasting interest in alchemy and the early history of chemistry. That interest shaped his best-known book, Alchemy, Child of Greek Philosophy (1934), in which he explored how ancient philosophical ideas helped shape alchemical thought.
He died in 1939. The surviving record of his papers suggests a scholar who moved comfortably between laboratory science and the history of ideas, making his writing appealing to listeners who enjoy science with a human and historical side.