For those of you who won't actually read this, nuclear transmutation could be considered modern day alchemy. In 1980 a professor at UC Berkeley actually turned atoms of bismuth into gold, which was one of the original aims of alchemy (albeit at a loss). I don't know if I'd consider a guy a quack for believing something was possible just because the technology to actually do it wouldn't exist for a couple hundred years.
Thanks for sharing. Link some more stuff if you got any.