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.

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.

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.

Excellent Content, Horrible Narration

The content is highly engaging but the narration is choppy and robotic. I urge Audible to release this book again with better narration.

Amazing inventions and the effects they have had a upon us.

This is perhaps the best book I have listened to this year. Whether or not it was meant to be, I found it inspiring. It spoke about the arduous process of creation and the root race to patent your creation before others do. More specifically,By chapter:

1. INTERACT is mostly about time. Time measuring devices, the effect these measuring devices have had upon us, Including how we now SLEEP that is different than how we slept a couple of hundred years ago.
2. CONNECT is about physical connection and how technology has made it easier to connect with one another By getting to one place from another in less time.
3. CONVEY is about the ability to communicate more quickly.
4. CAPTURE The capture of images, photography and the like; correcting those images to accurately display color
5. SEE The demise of the lightning bug; the rise of man-made illumination and it’s effects upon society
6. SHARE- The sharing of music, the spoken word, a record sent to outer space, mass production of physical copies leading to different cultures being able to sample different language and music. the ascent of Binary code and computers to share ideas sounds and words. Changes in format from punchcards to magnetic tape to floppy disks to hard drives to SSDI drives to the Internet and the cloud.Phonograph records from 78 to 33 1/3rpm to track four track to cassette to CDs. Then the music was digitized and streamed, downloaded on computers, phones an elsewhere. In addition to the ubiquitous availability of information through computer streaming, those who provide streaming services have concomitantly been able to aggregate information about us including which songs we access how long will you play them for how long we listen to a particular song what articles we read perhaps the ZIP Code where we are accessing the information perhaps our names and addresses as well as other information about us which is Characterized by many as the “data”.
7. DISCOVER - Discovery has resulted in real advances in medicine. The discovery of bacteria and antibiotics, viruses in antivirals, cancers and treatments for cancer, technology to replace parts of our bodies. Experimentation with glass by adding certain substances to it has been key to making many new materials. Glass cookware, glass communication transmission wire optics advances never anticipated and so much more Have been created.Chemists Have rejuvenated the science of textiles, By making new textiles and coloring them with advanced color making ability. making flavors and food additives.Improvements in glass have been helpful in making new flavors, Cathode rays, x-rays and television.
8. THINK - neuroscientist have learned increasingly important information about the brain and the way it functions including chemical messengers and pathways that may be used to motivate part of our body to act in certain ways.To communicate by telephone required switchboards. Careful thinking about how switch boards are made and function has resulted in the development of automatic switchboards.
Transistors were invented and can be used as small switches. Thanks to the transistor we have A.m. radios that can fit in your pocket and have been able to develop computers. Through connecting computers we have the Internet. On the Internet One May find information not readily available elsewhere.

I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book as it discusses, history, economic development, The joy of science and how Scientific innovation has influenced our lives in so many matters central to the lives of Americans living within in the last 150 years and more.

My recommendation is that you purchase this book. It will make you happy.

a fascinating collection of stories about people

this is one of those wonderful surprises to stumble upon. I was intrigued by the description, and the reviews. I agree, enthusiastically, with those who describe these descriptions of people, and the impact that they had on the world based on their personal passions. I found it really hard to put down. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Couldn't finish 😪

There's great information in this title. However the narration is irritating. There's also too much editorialiazing and flowery picture painting.

exceptional book

The author does a superb job of leading us through some of the most important inventions, what led to it's development, and it's impact on our society and on us as individuals. I was never bored throughout the book. The narration was excellent.