I've found this to be a bit strange... My older villagers have been snooping around in the alchemy room. I know the younger kids do it, but are the eldery supposed to? Does this mean the have an interest in science or something?

I've had that too, I think it's just when you get to a point where they're well off it's one of the things that they start to do.

Aha, that makes sense. Thank you! [I also meant to put 'they' instead of 'the' up there. Too late to edit.]