Ainissa Ramirez

Materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez looks at how eight key inventions shaped the human experience – clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips.

Ramirez explains how our search for precision in timepieces changed the way we sleep, how the railway helped to commercialise Christmas, and how the telegram influenced Hemingway’s writing style. She shows how materials were shaped by their inventors but also how these inventions went on to shape our culture. And she uncovers some little-known inventors, including people of colour and women whose accomplishments have been hidden.

Ramirez is a materials scientist and science communicator. She has worked as a research scientist at Bell Labs, held academic positions at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and writes for Time, Scientific American, the American Scientist, and scienceForbes.

This event is part of the festival’s programme of American literature and culture.

In association with MIT Press.