Ramirez Jacket.jpg

The Alchemy of 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 lab-ware, 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.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Get a Copy
 

Awards

Winner, Connecticut Book Award (2021) • Finalist, LA Times Book Prize (Sci&Tech) (2021) • Winner, AAAS/Subaru Science Book Prize (2021) • Brown University Book Award (2021-22) • Amazon’s Best Science Books of 2020 • Smithsonian Magazine’s Ten Best Science Books of 2020 • Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2020 • Science News Favorite Books of 2020 • AAAS/Subaru 2021 Young Adult Science Book Award Finalist • Big Think’s 10 Best Science and Technology Books of 2020 • Behavioral Scientist’s Notable Books of 2020

REVIEWS

Smithsonian Magazine

“Material scientist Ainissa Ramirez offers up a highly readable exploration of how eight inventions—quartz clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, silver photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, labware and silicon chips—have both intentionally and inadvertently shaped our world.”

Library Journal

“[T]echnology buffs should appreciate Ramirez’s efforts to raise the attention of issues impacting scientists, engineers, and technologists.”

Publishers Weekly

“By explaining how inventions both exotic and mundane transformed society, Ramirez’s ingenious survey illuminates the effect of science in a manner accessible to a wide readership.”

Undark Magazine

“Ramirez is one of those rare science writers who can take her material, present it in wholly unexpected ways, and in the process reshape a reader’s fundamental understanding of a subject.”

Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

“Entertaining and elucidating—popular science done right, with enthusiasm and without dumbing-down.”

 
ENDORSEMENTS

James Burke, filmmaker and author of Connections

“A fascinating rumpus-room of a book, crowded with nook-and-cranny history you never knew, about unsung inventors and their world-changing endeavors. If you love whodunits, unintended consequences, eureka moments (or what technology may be doing to you, even as you read these words), then this is the book for you.”

Professor Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge, and Master of Churchill College

“This book is full of interesting vignettes of inventions you might think you know about. However, you are unlikely to know the colorful histories of the people behind the stories or all the consequences of the inventions, as spelled out here.”

Philip Ball, author of Beyond Weird and How to Grow a Human

“In this timely and beautifully written book, Ainissa Ramirez shows how developments in materials science have shaped lives, nations, and diverse communities. As well as championing an often neglected but vital scientific discipline, it is a wonderful account of how science and technology affect us all and why we must be alert to their implications and consequences.”

Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden

“Technology and inventions are changing our lives, but we less often appreciate how they are literally changing us—the ways that we talk, see, and think. In this engaging book, Ainissa Ramirez uncovers the stories of these changes and the people who made them happen.“

Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes

"It's easy to find a book that recounts the society-shaping powers of important inventions, but much harder to find one that peels back the unintended consequences of those creations, and reveals the forgotten innovators who were part of their stories. It's fortunate, then, that Ainissa Ramirez has written exactly that book, and done so with such rich and compelling prose. The Alchemy of Us carries important lessons about the cost of progress, the nature of invention, and the importance of diversity. It's an important read in a time of upheaval.”

Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh

“In The Alchemy of Us, Ainissa Ramirez tells the stories of the stuff that surrounds us in our modern world. Her tales are surprising, revealing, and delightfully told.”

Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize - Winning author of The Sixth Extinction

“We live in a world so dominated by our own inventions that, as Ainissa Ramirez observes, we've reinvented ourselves to accommodate them. The Alchemy of Us is at once timely, informative, and fascinating—a totally compelling work.”

 
 
 
NewtonFootball_cover final.jpg

Newton’s Football

With a clear-eyed empirical approach—and an exuberant affection for the game—St. John and Ramirez address topics that have long beguiled scientists and football fans alike. Blending smart reporting, counterintuitive creativity, and compelling narrative, Newton’s Football takes gridiron analysis to the next level, giving fans a book that entertains, enlightens, and explains the game anew.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play, iBooks | IndieBound | Books-A-Million

REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly

“[Newton’s Football is] fun and thought-provoking, proving that football is a mind game as much as it is a ball game."

Booklist

“A delightfully improbable book putting science nerds and sports fans on the same page.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Both self-proclaimed geeks and the sports-averse can appreciate this ‘gridiron version of the scientific method.’”

 
 
 
 
ted-book-save-our-science-01.jpg

Save Our Science

In Save Our Science, self-described science evangelist Ainissa Ramirez makes an impassioned call for a recommitment to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in our schools and throughout our society. She describes what habits need to change to make STEM fun again, as well as a plan for how to increase every child’s participation in these disciplines.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble