Modern Alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone

Two young students start a discussion with one of their professors when they see him as he is cutting a strange sculpture from a trunk in his front garden. They get invited to a personnel seminar on some features of the sculpture and this seminar turns into a journey through modern alchemy and the world of high pressure. Looking at high pressure in the universe they notice strange particles, strange objects, strange states in theses objects. and in the world around us looking at the big bang, at strange starsand at strange transformations of our chemical elements as some kind of modern alchemy. How can they explore this world of high pressure? What are the crystal structures of the elements? Why do the elements transform under pressure? What does the sculpture of the professor tell about the elements? All these question lead to some modern solid state physics without discussions of any formulas but with many colored picture describing nature.