Ainissa Ramirez

This book has the following quote from Octavia Butler at the beginning:
All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you...

And that pretty much sums up the basis for this book. Ainissa Ramirez looks at eight different inventions or, in some cases, combinations of inventions and describes how they changed humans. Some of the information is fascinating such as the story in the first chapter about Ruth Belville who took a pocket watch to Greenwich to have its time authenticated and then went around London passing on the correct time to businesses and individuals. Everyone, of course knows the story of how Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone but the first telephone switchboard was invented by an undertaker name Almon Strowger. This then led to the development of transistors and silicon chips. But for every development life as people had known it was changed, and not always for the better. Now that more and more data can be stored on small chips, our privacy is increasingly at risk.

The frontispiece of this book promised that Ramirez would showcase little-known inventors--particularly people of color and women but I didn't really find that was so. Overwhelmingly the people she wrote about were white men and the pictures accompanying the text show only one woman scientist who also happens to be black. There are other books about women and people of colour who have made great contributions to science. Let this one be about what the subtitle promised: How Humans and Matter Transformed one Another.… (mais)

This exploration of moments in history through the lens of material science is a very interesting perspective, well-researched and informative.

Yes, there are a few comments on causality and conclusions I don't fully agree with, but that's the same for any commodity history and they are far outweighed by the value of the history that is included. I'm curious how one could say so much about a few sentences on the effect of texting on modern language while completely ignoring the section about Polaroid in South Africa. Curious.… (mais)

In this book, Dr. Ainissa Ramirez tells us stories of invention and innovation.

There are several problems with this book. First, the notion that technology changes society isn't new or surprising. And I noticed several errors, including the population stats stated for Chicago, the date of the introduction of the telegraph and more.

It's a bit lightweight. But I think it is a powerful book for inspiring young people to explore technology and think about putting things together in new ways. She does this by telling stories of past innovations, and story telling is a powerful means of teaching and inspiring.… (mais)