1. Phlogiston is the substance something becomes when it is burned.
2. Most of alchemy was random people trying anything and everything to get to an impossible goal, but sometimes, they found useful information along the way.
3. If a substance reacts with an acid, it will generate positively charged hydrogen ions. If it reacts with a base, it will create negatively charged hydroxide ions.
4. They were gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, mercury, carbon, and sulfer.
5. Arsenic, in 1250 by Albertus Magnus, and Phosphorus, in 1669 by Hennig Brandt.
6. I don not believe that these quests have ever stopped, but I do believe that the search for wealth and youth has moved away from the scientific community and has been taken up by the business and marketing organizations. Many products now-a-days assert "youthful looks", and weather they work or not, corporations are using this unending search to make a quick buck off the teaming throngs of buyers trying anything to reach their goals.
