The alchemy of us : how humans and matter transformed one another
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Materials science, wedged as it is between the ... fields of chemistry and physics, teaches us that everything in our world is due to the interactions of atoms. If you can find out how they interact to make up the physical world, then you can also change the way that atoms act to make them do new things and, as we develop new materials, we discover that materials and humans are constantly being molded by each other. [This book] shows how materials were shaped by inventors, but also how those materials shaped culture ... Particularly, [it] highlights how quartz clocks, steel rails, copper cables, silver photographic films, carbon light bulb filaments, magnetic disks, glass labware, and silicon chips radically altered how we interact, connect, convey, capture, see, share, discover, and think"--,Provided by publisher.