Copper, silver and gold all share the same group in the periodic table, which means that they have the same number of electrons in their outer shell. They occupy the consecutive periods, which means that copper, silver and gold have 4, 5 and 6 atomic orbitals respectively. All three metals have similar properties and all three were very important throughout the history. Their monetary value increases exponentially with each atomic orbit. It is not surprising then, that the desire to transform one metal into another occupied people from the days of Ancient Egypt to very recent history.
Wings of Desire pays tribute to all the early scientists who were trying to capitalize on the dialectics law of quantity and quality, where accumulation of small quantitative changes results in a big qualitative jump. They had the right idea but not the means to achieve it. Even though their passionate desire to transform base metals into gold did not produce the intended qualitative jump, the quantity of knowledge accumulated in the process of trying became a driving force in the development of science and served as the foundation of modern chemistry.
