alchemy

Religion had an intimate association with alchemy during the Middle Ages.

在中世纪， 宗教和炼金术密切相联。

How could the ultimate scientist have been seemingly hornswoggled by a totemic psuedoscience like alchemy, which in its commonest rendering is described as the desire to transform lead into gold?

一个终极科学家怎么会看上去像是被炼金术这种图腾伪科学所迷惑，而对这种伪学科最常见的描述是把铅变成黄金的欲望？