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How cool would it be if it was real like in the show*dreams*

No. As much as my FullMetal Alchemist obsessed mind is practically screaming at me to believe it, I can't.

Alchemy was practiced hundreds of years ago to, for example, turn lead into gold and create the elixir of life. It never worked; even in the anime series, during the movie, it states it's not real (in our world).

However it is thanks to the medieval alchemists that our science is like it is now, since they studied the elements 3nodding

Man I feel like such a nerd right now...Darn you interesting science class!

Alchemy is a real science. although it is not the magic you see in the anime or the manga. its different. gets more into quantum physics. it would be to hard for me to explain it cause i only understand very little of the subject but it is real. and it was at its prime during the middle ages in Europe.

Alchemy as it is seen in the series is not realistic by any stretch of the imagination.
A science that had similar goals was, however, practiced during the Renaissance, by Alchemists (Did you know, Issac Newton discovered the principles of Physics through Alchemical studies?)

The only feasable way to get lead to become true gold is through a particle accelerator (not bloody likely), or through a series of carefully selected chemical reactions that result with the element of gold as a product, which certainly didn't turn the lead -directly- into gold.

Reports have shown that the Alchemists did, however, melt gold with elements such as mercury to create an alloy that -looked- like gold, which caused all but the most observant and educated to believe them.

On the other hand, the spiritual side of Alchemy is very easy to believe-- The alchemists attempted to purify lead through purifying themselves, almost as an active meditation. That goal of spiritual work is something that thousands of people aim for in their own lives-- And that a few of them might actually achieve. That journey and desire, to turn your own soul into something you believe to be pure, is completely real.

EDIT: Also, Chimeras (as in, human/animal hybrids) have been realized. See LINK

wow. shes right!! eek i though i was a science geek,....back to NASA!!! LOL xd (i work there....well, i work for some one there) mrgreen

Of course I believe in alchemy, as it's (or ay least was) a real science. It evolved into today's chemistry, I believe.

Most alchemists were conmen, though, and used magic tricks to persuade people that they were actually transmuting. However, the famous alchemist Paracelsus, or Theoprastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim, (whom Ed and Al's dad was named after), was said to have never been without a Philosopher's stone. He also had the reciepe for, and in some stories, created, a homunculus, in which human sperm and other tissue was buried in horse manure for 40 days, and would then form the embryo of the tiny human.