In the book "Alchemy and Life," scientist and popularizer of science Ainissa Ramirez cites eight inventions - watches, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, an electric lamp, a hard disk, laboratory glassware and silicon chips - and shows how they influenced human experience. Ramirez talks about a woman who "sold time," about the inventor who inspired Edison, about an enthusiastic entrepreneur whose discovery suggested a path to creating a computer. Among other things, she describes how the pursuit of accuracy predetermined our sleeping patterns, how the railways facilitated the commercialization of the Christmas holidays, how the forced brevity of telegrams affected Hemingway's literary style, and how a young chemist exposed the practice of using polaroid chambers for passporting and racial segregation under apartheid South Africa. These vivid, compelling stories offer an unexpected glimpse into our relationship with technology. By building a chronology of each invention and its consequences - expected and unforeseen, Ramirez shows not only how inventors changed their body of materials, but also how these materials shaped culture.