weeks 6 and 7: alchemy -- science, magic, art-- or all three?

Well, I have heard "magic" defined as "science we don't understand yet." And I'd say Alchemy fits that pretty well. Especially as I was reading that first link -- maybe I'm just wigging out on the hot cocoa I just drank and my brain isn't functioning as well as it could, but it seemed pretty dense. Sorry I think I'm getting to be a whiner about these websites -- I only like the interactive ones, they have to have pretty colors and nice graphics and things to click on, otherwise I accuse them of being dry and dense. But one thing that I did get from it was the symbolism of lead and gold, and it also went into the whole mystery of cinnabar in a more complete way than I'd been getting from our history class. I'm thinking the external alchemy is a combination of science, magic, art and just plain weirdness, whereas the internal alchemy is science and art, with a little magic. I'm glad to see the symbolism of the metals, as that makes me think that the whole external alchemy weirdness may have been a screen for the internal alchemy wisdom. People drinking poisonous metals in an effort to live forever just doesn't sit well with me.