OK, I certainly don’t have a solution but here is my thinking so far…
Fishing Sinker - presumably made of LEAD - transformed to GOLD
Glass - mostly SILICON - transformed to GALLIUM
Solder - no lead then must be TIN - transformed to SILVER
Steel - mostly IRON - transformed to COPPER
So: Sinker, Glass, Glass, Solder, Steel, Sinker, Glass, Sinker, Glass
Becomes: Gold, Gallium, Gallium, Silver, Copper, Gold, Gallium, Gold, Gallium
Not sure where that gets us…
However chemical symbols may be involved?
Gold - Au
Gallium - Ga
Silver - Ag
Copper - Cu
I can’t see any anagrams there or anything else spelt out at first glance, anyone else got any ideas?
EDIT:
OK, picking up on the geneticist hint,
wikipedia shows that the letters denoting amino acids in genetic code bear a striking resemblance to the letters representing the chemical elements as above.
Therefore: Gold, Gallium, Gallium, Silver, Copper, Gold, Gallium, Gold, Gallium
Becomes : AU, GA, GA, AG, CU, AU, GA, AU, GA
Which we group in 3's like the genetic code thing: AUG, AGA, AGC, UAU, GAA, UGA
and the letters denoting the amino acids specified by each 3 letter code gives us M, R, S, Y, E, Stop.
Therefore Mrs (Margaret) Ye has the key.
My brain hurts.
