The Alchemy of Us
How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
Published on 6. April 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
328 pages
978-0-262-54226-5 (ISBN)
Description
In the bestselling tradition of Stuff Matters and The Disappearing Spoon: a clever and engaging look at materials, the innovations they made possible, and how these technologies changed us.
In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions--clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips--and reveals how they shaped the human experience. 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, among other things, 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.
In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions--clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips--and reveals how they shaped the human experience. 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, among other things, 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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge (Massachusetts)
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
102 black and white photos
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
522 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-54226-5 (9780262542265)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2020
MIT Press
€30.95
Article exhausted; check different version
E-Book
03/2020
MIT Press
€22.49
Available for download
Person
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).
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1: Interact
Chapter 2: Connect
Chapter 3: Convey
Chapter 4: Capture
Chapter 5: See
Chapter 6: Share
Chapter 7: Discover
Chapter 8: Think
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Annotated Bibliography
Quote Permissions
Illustration Credits
Index
Chapter 1: Interact
Chapter 2: Connect
Chapter 3: Convey
Chapter 4: Capture
Chapter 5: See
Chapter 6: Share
Chapter 7: Discover
Chapter 8: Think
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Annotated Bibliography
Quote Permissions
Illustration Credits
Index