The eight chapters of The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez detail how the discoveries and inventions of ordinary people changed the world for future generations. The things we take for granted required materials and humans working together to develop the telegraph, steel, medical treatments, photographic techniques, the phonograph, and the electronic devices we now depend on in our daily lives.

The stories date back centuries to include descriptions of people working regular day jobs but experimenting in their off hours on personal projects that yielded innovative uses of chemicals, minerals, and electricity. Some came out of personal tragedies and some from changes in careers. Some were the results of accidental discoveries.

In 1825, Samuel Morse was working as an artist when he was invited to paint a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. During his absence from home, Morse learned—in a letter from his father-in-law—that his wife had died. Letter writing was the only way of communicating across distance at that time. Morse would go on to develop a telegraph system using his Morse code. It would revolutionize the world so that others wouldn’t have to suffer from lack of rapid communication. This is just one of the many stories in the book that tell of new innovations. 

The development of steel to be used in railroad tracks made westward migration in America more comfortable and faster than moving by stagecoach. 

Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin reduced deaths from bacterial diseases. 

The use of silicon for electronic devices led us into today’s world of computers and compact hand-held devices.            

A Notes section at the back of the book provides readers with further sources for each chapter. There are historical black-and-white photographs in the center of the book. Many in our group thought these should have been placed within the chapters instead of in one section.          

The majority of the UMRA Book Club I readers liked The Alchemy of Us but felt there was a great deal of information to process. The author, an American materials scientist and science communicator, was commended for the research she had done.

—Stephanie Daily, UMRA Book Club I