The Alchemy of Us

How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

By: Ainissa Ramirez

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

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; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid's cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa.

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 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.

©2020 Ainissa Ramirez (P)2020 Gildan Media

Behind the curtain

Backstories to inventions in recent history. More than just the results, like Paul Harvey’s “The rest of the story”.

The narrator sounds like robot

It gets really annoying to listen to. She sounds like GladOS computer from the Portal games.

Great stories! Bad, machine like reading

Unfortunately the reader makes this great book so much harder to listen to. There are computer/machine readers that would do a better job for this specific book. The reader tries to use inflections like for a suspense thriller when reading. Does not work at all in the way used by the reader for this non-fiction book. It's disruptive of the flow of the story more than it helps.
Otherwise the stories in the book are super interesting and well written. I learned so much, not just inventions that changed our lives even today (the "shoulders of giants" we stand on), but also the times and needs the inventions grew out of, the super interesting personalities that brought them forth, with all their complex characters and conditionings they carried with them from the times they lived in. Highly recommend to get the book, though maybe not this reading of it.

I just love this book!

I loved this book. It made science and inventors and innovators real inhuman and accessible. It told science as a story, engaging insightful and full of life. Thank you Ainissa Ramirez. What a beautiful book.

Delightful stories

I enjoyed the book but am giving it a 3 because every once in a while I felt the author was glazing over or over generalizing when a few more wards could have more accurately conveyed the science. I think it’s important.