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• Author/Creator:Ramirez, Ainissa, 1969- author.
  
• Title:The alchemy of us : how humans and matter transformed one another / Ainissa Ramirez.
  
• ISBN:0262542269
  9780262542265
  9780262043809
  
• Edition:MIT Press first paperback edition.
  
• Publication:Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, 2021.
  
• Copyright notice date: ©2020
  
• Physical Description:xv, 308 pages, 64 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 23 cm
  

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  • Location:Bass, Upper Level, Model Research Collection
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  • Call Number: TA403.2 .R36 2021 (LC)
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    

  • Location:Bass, Upper Level, Model Research Collection
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  • Call Number: TA403.2 .R36 2021 (LC)
    
  • Status:Renewed - Due on 05-06-2025
    

   
• Summary: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. 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.
  
• Format:Book
• BibliographyIncludes bibliographical references (pages 253-292) and index.
  
• Contents:1. Interact -- How better clocks, made possible by small metal springs and vibrating gems, helped us keep time, but also made us lose track of something precious -- 2. Connect -- How steel stitched the country together with rails, but also how steel helped to manufacture culture -- 3. Convey -- How telegraph wires of iron and later copper gave rise to rapid forms of communication, and how these wires shaped information-and meaning -- 4. Capture -- How photographic materials captured us in visible and invisible ways -- 5. See -- How carbon filaments pushed back the darkness to help us see, but also veiled our eyes from viewing the impact of its overabundance -- 6. Share -- How magnetic bits of data made it possible to shared about us -- 7. Discover -- how scientific glassware helped us discover new medicines and helped us discover the secret to our electronic age -- 8. Think -- How the creation of rudimentary telephone switches ushered in silicon chips for computers, but also rewired our brains.
  
• Subjects:Materials--History--Popular works.
  Inventions--History--Popular works.
  Technology--Social aspects--Popular works.
  Inventions.
  Materials.
  Technology--Social aspects.
  
• Genre/Form:History.
  Popular works.