Elixir: A Parisian Perfume House and the Quest for the Secret of Life

The Elixir of Life is a groundbreaking book that challenges the long-held belief that living matter possesses a special quality, a spirit or essence, that differentiates it from nonliving matter.

Through the stories of two young chemists, Édouard Laugier and Auguste Laurent, this book reveals how their work rewrote the boundary between life and nonlife.

Despite being ridiculed by established chemists, their ideas led to a discovery of structural differences between naturally occurring molecules and their synthetic counterparts, even when the molecules were chemically identical.

This anomaly may hold critical insights concerning the origins of life on Earth.

With its rich blend of sparks, smells, eccentric characters, experimental daring, and romance of the Bohemian salon, The Elixir of Life is a fascinating cultural and scientific history that will captivate readers from start to finish.