These days, we would call them proprietary blends. But in the late 1500s and early 1600s, individual alchemists called the ...

The 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was one of the most amazing figures in the history of science. Born in 1546 to ...

Tycho Brahe was an alchemist who was reluctant to share his discoveries. In his laboratory, however, he worked with an element that humanity discovered only nearly 200 years after his death.

It turns out that Tycho Brahe, mostly known for his study of astronomy, had his own basement laboratory for mixing medicines—including some particular elements. Brahe’s famed observatory ...