The Science of Magic, Monsters, and Mythical Elements
When you think of the mythical, what comes to mind? Whatever it is, it’s probably far away from anything science. But science and magic are not always of two distant worlds. Often in history—and occasionally in modern times—, one has influenced the other.
We decided to take a deeper look into how science has had some influences on the world of magic (and vice versa).
(Al)chemical Experiments
Long before alchemy appeared in the pages of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, people viewed it as a serious branch of science and philosophy. Practitioners set out to do three seemingly simple things. They sought a way to transform iron, lead, tin and copper into gold or silver. They wanted to find an elixir for immortality. And they hoped to fashion a homunculus, or an artificial man.
The modern word "alchemy" comes from the Arabic word "al kemia," which incorporated a spectrum of knowledge of chemical properties and practices from ancient times.
One famous (and maybe surprising) investigator of alchemy was Sir Isaac Newton, a culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. Despite his widespread work as a physicist and mathematician, Newton also harbored a fascination for alchemy and wrote extensively on the subject, even mentioning famed French alchemist Nicolas Flamel in his notes.
There were plenty of theoretical and observed reasons at the time to take the principles of alchemy seriously, to believe that compounds could be broken down into their basic constituents and those constituents then reconfigured into other, more desirable substances. Historians have argued that Newton’s alchemical investigations helped yield one of his fundamental breakthroughs in physics: his demonstration that the multiple colors produced by a prism could be reconstituted into white light.
And while alchemy is not necessarily considered a science today, alchemists’ experiments were a precursor to modern chemistry and helped lead to discoveries that proved essential for pharmacology and metallurgy.
Wingardium Leviosa
Gravity attracts all matter. As a basic force of the universe, it keeps cosmos spinning and apples falling toward the earth. Yet there are stories that circulate in all parts of the world describing those who seem to have mastered ways to slip its bonds. The Guatama Buddha floated above water. And Joseph of Cupertino so regularly levitated during Mass that after his canonization the church made him the patron saint of flying.
But one particular element of defying gravity has filtered through plenty of fantastical stories: the magical flying carpet. Original legends discuss a flying carpet woven on an ordinary loom, but (through alchemical processes) its dyes held spectacular powers. Made from a special type of clay with magnetic properties—since Earth is a magnet—, it held the ability to hover several hundreds of feet above the ground.
The concept may not be so far from the truth. In 2011, researchers at Princeton University developed a prototype “flying carpet” of electrified plastic that imitates a magic rug by lifting sheets of conductive plastic with waves of electrical current. The sheets' rippling then controls thin pockets of air and propels itself forwards and backwards.
But furthering the idea of magnetic “flying” are the popular hoverboards. Hoverboards may not be as comfortable as carpets, but they rely on superconductors and magnets, which combine to repel the force of gravity and lift an object above the ground.
Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll see the two concepts combined, and we can all live out our Aladdin dreams.
A Symbol of Spooky
Bats are right up there with jack-o'-lanterns, black cats, and skeletons as Halloween fixtures, but how did these mosquito-snacking mammals become associated with spooky season, anyway?
Fueled by stories, like Dracula, where vampires can transform into these creatures at will, bats—of the order Chiroptera, meaning “winged hands”—may conjure images of blood-sucking vampires, but the local varieties are interested in eating only insects. Their nocturnal-ness often evoke a sense of awe and fear because nocturnal animals have often been associated with the concepts of death and darkness.
Some cultures even consider them a “liminal” animal—not quite a bird, not quite a mammal. Something else liminal? Halloween. One of the main themes of Halloween is liminality, or the state of being in-between. It's between one state and another state; between growth and death; between fall and winter, the beginning of the new year. There are all sorts of symbols of that in-between-ness.
But what many people may not know is that of the nearly 1,000 bat species known, only one—the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus—actually does feed on the blood of other mammals. Vampire bats feed exclusively on the blood of other vertebrates, which represents the most extreme example of food specialization in bats. However, exactly when the blood-feeding bats were named “vampires,” and thus linked to ancient legends, is not known.
Louisiana is home to at least a dozen bat species, but don’t worry—the vampire bat is not one of them.