[Develowaime]

Should we dismiss the possibility of ancient alchemical practices holding any validity in light of our current scientific understanding, or could there be some hidden knowledge waiting to be uncovered through a new perspective?

[mjc123]

The alchemists did not have a modern understanding of the distinction between elements and compounds. You can do chemistry - that is, change the way atoms are bonded to each other, converting one compound to another - under normal lab conditions (temperature, pressure etc.). But you can't change one kind of atom into another (i.e. interconvert elements) under such conditions. So you can't transmute base metals into gold by "chemical" methods. The alchemists may have incidentally discovered a lot of chemistry, but their primary goal is simply a non-starter.

[DrCMS]

Should we dismiss the possibility of ancient alchemical practices holding any validity in light of our current scientific understanding?

Yes