The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (Mit Press)

A “timely, informative, and fascinating” study of 8 inventions—and how they shaped our world—with “totally compelling” insights on little-known inventors throughout history (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction)

In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines 8 inventions and reveals how they shaped the human experience:
 
• Clocks
• Steel rails
• Copper communication cables
• Photographic film
• Light bulbs
• Hard disks
• Scientific labware
• Silicon chips
 
Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; how the necessary brevity of the telegram influenced Hemingway’s writing style; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid’s cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. These fascinating and inspiring stories offer new perspectives on our relationships with technologies.

Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences—intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors—particularly people of color and women—who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal—whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR.

Ainissa Ramirez, Ph.D., is the author of the award-winning title The Alchemy of Us (The MIT Press). A graduate of Brown University, she earned her doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford. Dr. Ramirez began her career as a scientist at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey and was later an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Yale. Yet, Ainissa Ramirez is best known as a masterful science communicator who is dedicated to making science engaging to a broad audience.  Her book was an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist and it won the Connecticut Book Award as well as the AAAS/Subaru Book Prize. Ramirez has written for Forbes, Time, The Atlantic, and Scientific American and has explained science headlines on CBS, CNN, NPR, ESPN, and PBS. Additionally, she speaks widely on the topics of science and technology and gave a TED talk on the importance of a science education. Currently, she is writing a series of science books for young readers (Candlewick/MIT Press).