41 pages • 1 hour read
The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
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Themes
Science and Context
The Alchemy of Us stands out among popular science books because it addresses context rather than focusing primarily on technical issues. Indeed, Ramirez excels at interweaving context and technique. In Chapter 1, she demonstrates that developments in timekeeping technology reinforced contemporary ideologies, notably capitalism, and explained how clocks and watches became more accurate. Chapter 2 also addresses the relationship between invention and capitalism. Here, Ramirez focuses on the properties of steel, its use in the production of railway lines, and the impact these advances had on commerce. Before the construction of railways, stores on the western frontier had to stockpile goods, so they were vulnerable to theft. In addition, business was seasonal. Railways allowed shops to received inventory on a regular basis, thereby transforming the nature of commerce.
Chapters 3, 4, 6, and 8 focus on four different inventions and their impact on various modes of communication. Chapter 3 describes the technological advances that made the telegraph possible—and the impact of this new method of communication on language. Telegraph wires of iron and, later, copper allowed for rapid communication, which shaped written and spoken English. The new technology initially affected the news and later influenced literature and spoken English. Chapter 4 similarly contextualizes a mode of communication—photography. In addition to describing how cameras function and the science behind flexible film, Ramirez discusses the ways in which photography companies reinforced racism. Kodak refused to alter its color film in response to Black customers’ complaints. Similarly, Polaroid sold the ID-2 to the apartheid government of South Africa, who used it in passbooks that controlled the movement of Black people. Chapter 6 explores how the phonograph functions and its role changing how people share information. Records and then magnetic cassettes allowed people to store, retrieve, and share data, whereas digital files turn people into data, which streaming companies share with other corporations and advertising agencies. Chapter 8 details the how silicone chips work and discusses the effects of computers on the brain.
Ramirez also interweaves context and technique in Chapters 5 and 7. In Chapter 5, she focuses on the invention of electric lighting. She starts with a technical explanation of Edison and Wallace’s inventions and then transitions into discussing how artificial light can affect human health and sleep, which can lead to illness. Chapter 7 addresses developments in scientific glassware. Ramirez explains how different levels of boron alter glass and then how experiments in the kitchen led to developments in laboratory glass and thus had a role in medical and scientific breakthroughs.
The Importance of Interdisciplinarity
Ramirez demonstrates that science, technology, and culture are interdependent. She breaks down traditional disciplinary boundaries by discussing the physical sciences alongside the social sciences and arts, thereby underscoring their connection: “The Alchemy of Us shows how materials were shaped by inventors, but also how those materials shaped culture […] The Alchemy of Us seeks to create a new connection to the world, to history, and to each other” (xiv-xv). Ramirez’s approach counters the commonly held belief that science and technology are neutral entities that stand outside culture.
The social science and arts feature prominently in The Alchemy of Us. Notable examples include the sections about 19th-century puritanical beliefs (Chapter 1), capitalism and the growth of commerce in the US (Chapter 2), American literature (Chapter 3), photographic studies of motion (Chapter 4), and advances in baking (Chapter 7).
Although Ramirez interweaves various disciplines throughout her book, one of the most detailed discussions of the arts appears in Chapter 6, which focuses on the invention of the phonograph and its impact on society. The phonograph allowed sound to be recorded for the first time. As Ramirez observes, the new technology also enabled cross-fertilization between musical genres. Phonographs allowed people to enjoy music in their homes using records. In other words, they could listen to music without attending live concerts. The phonograph spelled the end of much homemade folk music but also opened new avenues in music-making. Recordings allowed musicians from disparate places not only to listen to each other’s music but also to learn from one another. Thus, phonographs shaped music and led to musical innovation: “Phonographs were dispatches of culture. This sharing of music between these musicians helped fashion jazz and blues and later rock and roll, creating a cohesion of society that Edison could never have predicted” (154). These exchanges occurred even as musicians were physically separate and segregated by race politics.
Amplifying Underrepresented Voices
The Alchemy of Us emphasizes noteworthy figures and events that conventional history has underrepresented. Ramirez writes about women, racial minorities, and lesser-known inventors whom more famous ones have upstaged. As a Black female scientist, Ramirez is acutely aware of the importance of representation. For example, in her Introduction, she writes about the positive impact of seeing a Black girl solving science problems on the PBS show 3-2-1 Contact. She seeks to provide a similar experience to her readers by highlighting those whom science books traditionally omit. In doing so, her goal is to draw diverse people to the field:
The Alchemy of Us fills in the gaps of most books about technology by telling the tales of little-known inventors […] I chose to look at the gaps, at the silences in history, because they too are instructive about the makings of our culture. I highlight ‘others’ to allow more people to see their reflection. I use storytelling with the hopes of bringing the wonder and fun of science to more people (xv).
Ramirez amplifies the underrepresented throughout her book. For example, Chapter 1 opens with a discussion of Ruth Belville, the Greenwich Time Lady, who made a living by telling people the time using her highly accurate pocket watch. Chapter 4 credits Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, a little-known 19th-century inventor, with creating a process for making thin, flexible photographic film. Although history celebrates Edison as the inventor of artificial light, Chapter 5 explains that his light bulb would not have been possible without Wallace’s carbon arc light, which Edison studied at Wallace’s home. Chapter 7 addresses Bessie Littleton’s contributions to the creation of Pyrex glass—namely, her experiments with the Nonex glass her husband brought home from his place of employment.
Black people play an important role in Ramirez’s book. This is particularly evident in Chapter 4, which is about photography. Ramirez discusses Frederick Douglass’s efforts to counter negative racial stereotypes with self-portraits: “Douglass used his pleasant countenance to counter the unpleasant depictions of black Americans” (105). Chapter 4 also includes sections about Black people combatting corporate racism. For example, Black mothers complained to Kodak after the company introduced color film in the mid-20th century because Kodak formulated its film to portray white skin, leaving Black people underexposed. Similarly, two Black Polaroid workers mobilized activists after learning about the company’s dealings in South Africa. After seven years of pressure, Polaroid broke ties with the apartheid government, a consequential event in South African history: “Polaroid’s departure started the process of dismantling apartheid, like a flicked domino, and Nelson Mandela would come to the United States to thank the PRWM for preventing the further capture of black South Africans” (118).
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