Philosopher's stone Memes

Medieval alchemists were basically the original chemistry influencers! This dude is in his lab like "Watch me turn this random metal into gold and don't forget to subscribe!" Meanwhile, his apprentices in the back are thinking "Is he still doing this? We've been eating lead-contaminated soup for THREE YEARS." The eternal quest for the Philosopher's Stone was basically history's longest-running failed science experiment - centuries of bearded men mixing dangerous chemicals and being absolutely shocked when gold didn't magically appear. But hey, they accidentally discovered phosphorus and distillation while trying to get rich quick, so... task failed successfully?