This formula can turn cement into metal-MODERN DAY ALCHEMIST

WASHINGTON: Scientists have discovered the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal that makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up the possibility of its use in the consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.

"This new material has lots of applications, including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," said Chris Benmore, a physicist from the US department of energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory who worked with a team of scientists from Japan, Finland and Germany. Benmore and Shinji Kohara from Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 led the research effort.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alchemist

are people who study a medieval chemical science, and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold and silver.

He’s using this as a metaphor to say that he can turn something unimportant, or unimpressive, into the opposite… something important, or something impressive.