A German alchemist called Johann Friedrich Bottger was asked by the king to make gold out of lead.

国王要求一位名叫约翰·弗里德里希·伯特格的德国炼金术士用铅来炼金。

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For centuries, scientists have tried to turn base metals into precious ones, most commonly lead into gold — even Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, was an alchemist.

几个世纪以来，科学家都在尝试将基本金属变为贵金属，最常见的是铅变成黄金——甚至现代科学之父艾萨克·牛顿也是一个炼金术士。

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Or we could have come up with a fun but shallow list of "1000 most popular novels of all time", inevitably adding Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

或者我们也可以列出一个有趣而又浅近的书名目录：“有史以来最流行的1000本小说”，在这些书名中不可避免地增加了保罗·科埃略的《炼金术》和丹·布朗的《达芬奇的密码》。

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Coincidentally, at the same time Coelho found an unauthorized digital copy of The Alchemist, which he promptly posted on his website.

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The researchers used their technique to create an image of the sun inspired by the drawings of Robert Fludd, a 17th-century alchemist (the sun is the alchemists' symbol for gold).

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Dr Dee, which tells the story of 16th Century alchemist, astrologer and spy John Dee, opens on Friday.

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