My more meditative moments are the calm when I am working. My mind is on the task at hand, but when I find my groove, it is me and the evidence in a slow slow dance.
Some species of animals have been better used as human substitutes than others, with muggle medicine. White rats in particular can be the best "guinea pig", a better one than guinea pigs. How did you find human subjects back home, and how have you found them here? Experimenting on yourself alone begs for trouble.
Technology isn't always a best fit. Chemistry, unlike potions, is much less affected by the little differences in reaction vessels, so forth, once it's made to work. Everything gets scaled up for industrial levels of popular drugs or necessary ones. Chemists still get involved, but it's a different approach. You can find almost anything using the internet.
There's no harm in trying. If I get a boring time in a library of blank books, it's a small hiccup on my time. If it works, it's a worthwhile investment: your memory filling out the room around you.
Neither of those have come up here. But this place is about finding your own family. Alana and Will are here, so they're what I have. And you have some people here. I can't help but know that.