transmutation
IPA: trænsmjutˈeɪʃʌn
noun
- (obsolete) Change, alteration.
- The conversion of one thing into something else; transformation.
- (alchemy) Specifically, the supposed transformation of one element into another, especially of a base metal into gold.
- (nuclear physics) The actual transformation of one element into another by a nuclear reaction.
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Examples of "transmutation" in Sentences
- But the time was not yet ripe for the idea of transmutation of species to burst its bonds.
- But they were also fascinated with the idea of transmutation and believed in a sort of infinite mutability of matter.
- Not long after the middle of the eighteenth century Buffon had put forward the idea of transmutation of species, and he reiterated it from time to time from then on till his death in 1788.
- But in that day there was little proof forthcoming of its validity that could satisfy any one but a poet, and when Erasmus Darwin died, in 1802, the idea of transmutation of species was still but an unsubstantiated dream.
- In 1809 Lamarck introduced the idea of transmutation of species, suggesting that by changes in habitat, climate, and manner of living one species may, in the course of generations, be transformed into a new and distinct species.
- The analysis made by Cockcroft and Walton of the energy relations in a transmutation is of particular interest, because a verification was provided by this analysis for Einstein's law concerning the equivalence of mass and energy.
- While the names of Darwin and Goethe, and in particular that of Lamarck, must always stand out in high relief in this generation as the exponents of the idea of transmutation of species, there are a few others which must not be altogether overlooked in this connection.
- A girl should know something of what I have elsewhere called the transmutation of sex as it shows itself in the higher as distinguished from the lower types of manhood: she should know that it is good for a youth to spend his energy in visible ways and in the light of day; there is the less likelihood that it is being spent otherwise.
- The very persons who had most eagerly accepted the idea of transmutation of European species into American species, and similar limited variations through changed environment, because of the relief thus given the otherwise overcrowded ark, were now foremost in denouncing such an extension of the doctrine of transmutation as Lamarck proposed.
- In the Middle Ages, and, indeed, down to the time of that great philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, who was himself bitten with the craze, it was widely believed that, by what was known as transmutation, the baser metals might be changed to gold; and much time and trouble were expended in attempts to make gold -- needless to say without the desired result.
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