How materials science has changed humankind — for better and worse
The Alchemy of UsAinissa RamirezMIT Press, $27.95 Humans have continually wielded materials, from steel to silicon, in new ways to send technology leaping forward. But those technologies have unintentionally molded our bodies and society, materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez argues in The Alchemy of Us. Increasingly precise clocks — based on steel springs and then quartz crystals — kept society humming along in unison. But with the Industrial Revolution’s focus on factory schedules, humans became ever more obsessed with time, and our sleep habits suffered. Likewise, electric lights made with carbon filaments let people work and play for longer hours, but upset circadian rhythms, with a variety of negative health impacts (SN: 10/17/16). But the knock-on effects haven’t been all bad: Telegraph wires of iron and copper allowed news to travel quickly across the United States beginning in the 1840s. The technology’s demand for short communications helped shape the clipped style of American newspapers, whose reporters used the technology to send dispatches from afar. That style inspired the concise, clear...