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The Alchemy of Us
- How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's 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; 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.
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- By: Lucy Jane Santos
- Narrated by: Deirdre Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the 19th century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item - a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume - to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday 20th-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element.
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IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 09-22-21
By: Lucy Jane Santos
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Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
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Not written to be read aloud
- By A Reader in Maine on 02-21-20
By: Steven Strogatz
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Jane Jacobs, Jason Epstein - introduction
- Narrated by: Donna Rawlins
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."
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Fantastic text, dull on audio
- By Meghan on 02-13-15
By: Jane Jacobs, and others
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Unf--k Your Brain
- By: Faith G. Harper PhD LPC-S ACS ACN
- Narrated by: Faith G. Harper PhD LPC-S ACS ACN
- Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Our brains do their best to help us out, but every so often they can be real assholes - having meltdowns, getting addicted to things, or shutting down completely at the worst possible moments. Your brain knows it's not good to do these things, but it can't help it sometimes - especially if it's obsessing about trauma it can't overcome. That's where this life-changing book comes in. With humor, patience, science, and lots of good-ole swearing, Dr. Faith explains what's going on in your skull, and talks you through the process of retraining your brain to respond appropriately....
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Untuck this recording quality
- By Martin J. Fogarty on 07-25-18
What listeners say about The Alchemy of Us
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karl Z
- 05-23-22
Behind the curtain
Backstories to inventions in recent history. More than just the results, like Paul Harvey’s “The rest of the story”.
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- RAUL SILVA
- 09-21-23
The narrator sounds like robot
It gets really annoying to listen to. She sounds like GladOS computer from the Portal games.
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- Eric Kasum
- 03-31-22
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.
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- Margaret
- 02-05-22
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.
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- arecht
- 01-19-23
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.
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- F. AHMAD
- 05-01-21
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.
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43 people found this helpful
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- Angster
- 06-17-22
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.
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- Bob Gibson
- 02-01-22
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.
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- Brian
- 10-25-22
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.
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- Abdulmalik Shakir
- 12-06-20
Eye opening and empowering
This book is a brilliant tapestry of the human experience with invention, creation, and being. As we create we participate in our own evolution, in a way becoming unintentional creators of ourselves. Ms Ramirez’s presentation of this insight is excellently executed. A real page turner suitable for binge “reading” or listening.
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10 people found this helpful