Modern popular culture tends to associate Renaissance alchemy with magic and mysticism, when not with superstition and charlatanry. However, ongoing analyses of archaeological remains of alchemical laboratories are telling a different story: that modern science in general, and chemistry in particular, owe much more to early alchemy than usually acknowledged. Combining archaeology, history and science, this talk will show some of the groundbreaking experiments and knowledge of the pioneer scientists working in the quest for the philosopher's stone.