“Plandemic: Indoctornation” is a 75-minute pseudo-documentary that spins an elaborate conspiracy theory about the spread of COVID-19. The video is a follow-up to a shorter version that went viral in May. It repeats several inaccurate and misleading claims about the coronavirus pandemic. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to slow the spread of “Plandemic: Indoctornation.”

Fact-checking ‘Plandemic 2’: Another video full of conspiracy theories about COVID-19

A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been pandemic worldwide. The genetic dynamics of quasispecies afford RNA viruses a great fitness on cell tropism and host range. However, no quasispecies data of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported yet. To explore quasispecies haplotypes and its transmission characteristics, we carried out single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing of the full-length of SARS-CoV-2 spike gene within 14 RNA samples from 2 infection clusters, covering first-to third-generation infected-patients. We observed a special quasispecies structure of SARS-CoV-2 (modeled as ‘One-King’): one dominant haplotype (mean abundance ~70.15%) followed by numerous minor haplotypes (mean abundance < 0.10%). We not only discovered a novel dominant haplotype of F1040 but also realized that minor quasispecies were also worthy of attention. Notably, some minor haplotypes (like F1040 and currently pandemic one G614) could potentially reveal adaptive and converse into the dominant one. However, minor haplotypes exhibited a high transmission bottleneck (~6% could be stably transmitted), and the new adaptive/dominant haplotypes were likely originated from genetic variations within a host rather than transmission. The evolutionary rate was estimated as 2.68-3.86 × 10−3 per site per year, which was larger than the estimation at consensus genome level. The ‘One-King’ model and conversion event expanded our understanding of the genetic dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, and explained the incomprehensible phenomenon at the consensus genome level, such as limited cumulative mutations and low evolutionary rate. Moreover, our findings suggested the epidemic strains may be multi-host origin and future traceability would face huge difficulties.

10.1101/2020.08.20.258376

SARS-CoV-2 Quasispecies provides insight into its genetic dynamics during infection

10.1021/acsnano.0c05657

This article reports on a non-invasive approach in detecting and following-up individuals who are at-risk or have an existing COVID-19 infection, with a potential ability to serve as an epidemic control tool. The proposed method uses a developed breath device comprised of a nanomaterial-based hybrid sensors array with multiplexed detection capabilities that can detect disease-specific biomarkers from exhaled breath, thus enabling rapid and accurate diagnosis. An exploratory clinical study with this approach was examined in Wuhan, China during March 2020. The study cohort included 49 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 58 healthy controls and 33 non-COVID lung infection controls. When applicable, positive COVID-19 patients were sampled twice: during the active disease, and after recovery. Discriminant analysis of the obtained signals from the nanomaterial-based sensors achieved very good test discriminations between the different groups. The training and test set data exhibited, respectively, 94% and 76% accuracy in differentiating patients from controls as well as 90% and 95% accuracy in differentiating between patients with COVID-19 and patients with other lung infections. While further validation studies are needed, the results may serve as a base for technology that would lead to a reduction in number of unneeded confirmatory tests and lower the burden on the hospitals, while allowing individuals a screening solution that can be performed in PoC facilities. The proposed method can be considered as a platform that could be applied for any other disease infection with proper modifications to the artificial intelligence and would therefore be available to serve as a diagnostic tool in case of a new disease outbreak.

Multiplexed Nanomaterial-Based Sensor Array for Detection of COVID-19 in Exhaled Breath

10.12788/jhm.3497

The efficacy of glucocorticoids in COVID-19 is unclear. This study was designed to determine whether systemic glucocorticoid treatment in COVID-19 patients is associated with reduced mortality or mechanical ventilation. This observational study included 1,806 hospitalized COVID-19 patients; 140 were treated with glucocorticoids within 48 hours of admission. Early use of glucocorticoids was not associated with mortality or mechanical ventilation. However, glucocorticoid treatment of patients with initial C-reactive protein (CRP) ≥20 mg/dL was associated with significantly reduced risk of mortality or mechanical ventilation (odds ratio, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.08-0.70), while glucocorticoid treatment of patients with CRP <10 mg/dL was associated with significantly increased risk of mortality or mechanical ventilation (OR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.39-5.03). Whether glucocorticoid treatment is associated with changes in mortality or mechanical ventilation in patients with high or low CRP needs study in prospective, randomized clinical trials.

Effect of Systemic Glucocorticoids on Mortality or Mechanical Ventilation in Patients With COVID-19

The human microbiota has a close relationship with human disease and it remodels components of the glycocalyx including heparan sulfate (HS). Studies of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein receptor binding domain suggest that infection requires binding to HS and angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in a codependent manner. Here, we show that commensal host bacterial communities can modify HS and thereby modulate SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binding and that these communities change with host age and sex. Common human-associated commensal bacteria whose genomes encode HS-modifying enzymes were identified. The prevalence of these bacteria and the expression of key microbial glycosidases in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was lower in adult COVID-19 patients than in healthy controls. The presence of HS-modifying bacteria decreased with age in two large survey datasets, FINRISK 2002 and American Gut, revealing one possible mechanism for the observed increase in COVID-19 susceptibility with age. In vitro, bacterial glycosidases from unpurified culture media supernatants fully blocked SARS-CoV-2 spike binding to human H1299 protein lung adenocarcinoma cells. HS-modifying bacteria in human microbial communities may regulate viral adhesion, and loss of these commensals could predispose individuals to infection. Understanding the impact of shifts in microbial community composition and bacterial lyases on SARS-CoV-2 infection may lead to new therapeutics and diagnosis of susceptibility.

10.1101/2020.08.17.238444

Bacterial modification of the host glycosaminoglycan heparan sulfate modulates SARS-CoV-2 infectivity

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a mild to moderate respiratory tract infection, however, a subset of patients progress to severe disease and respiratory failure. The mechanism of protective immunity in mild forms and the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 associated with increased neutrophil counts and dysregulated immune responses remain unclear. In a dual-center, two-cohort study, we combined single-cell RNA-sequencing and single-cell proteomics of whole-blood and peripheral-blood mononuclear cells to determine changes in immune cell composition and activation in mild versus severe COVID-19 (242 samples from 109 individuals) over time. HLA-DRhiCD11chi inflammatory monocytes with an interferon-stimulated gene signature were elevated in mild COVID-19. Severe COVID-19 was marked by occurrence of neutrophil precursors, as evidence of emergency myelopoiesis, dysfunctional mature neutrophils, and HLA-DRlo monocytes. Our study provides detailed insights into the systemic immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and reveals profound alterations in the myeloid cell compartment associated with severe COVID-19.

10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.001

Severe COVID-19 Is Marked by a Dysregulated Myeloid Cell Compartment

Understanding the mechanism that leads to immune dysfunction induced by SARS-CoV2 virus is crucial to develop treatment for severe COVID-19. Here, using single cell RNA-seq, we characterized the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from uninfected controls and COVID-19 patients, and cells in paired broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We found a close association of decreased dendritic cells (DC) and increased monocytes resembling myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) which correlated with lymphopenia and inflammation in the blood of severe COVID-19 patients. Those MDSC-like monocytes were immune-paralyzed. In contrast, monocyte-macrophages in BALFs of COVID-19 patients produced massive amounts of cytokines and chemokines, but secreted little interferons. The frequencies of peripheral T cells and NK cells were significantly decreased in severe COVID-19 patients, especially for innate-like T and various CD8+ T cell subsets, compared to health controls. In contrast, the proportions of various activated CD4+ T cell subsets, including Th1, Th2 and Th17-like cells were increased and more clonally expanded in severe COVID-19 patients. Patients' peripheral T cells showed no sign of exhaustion or augmented cell death, whereas T cells in BALFs produced higher levels of IFNG, TNF, CCL4 and CCL5 etc. Paired TCR tracking indicated abundant recruitment of peripheral T cells to the patients' lung. Together, this study comprehensively depicts how the immune cell landscape is perturbed in severe COVID-19.

10.1101/2020.08.15.20175638

The differential immune responses to COVID-19 in peripheral and lung revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing

Background: Healthcare systems globally has been challenged following the COVID-19 pandemic, since late 2019. Multiple approaches and strategies have been performed to relieve the pressure and support existing healthcare systems. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) launched an initiative to support the National Healthcare System. Since the 5th of June 2020, 238 outpatient fever clinics were established across Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional study included 2,733 eligible patients subjected to MOH treatment protocol (hydroxychloroquine and zinc) and revisited the clinics within 3-7 days after treatment initiation. This study aimed to assess the safety outcome and reported adverse events from hydroxychloroquine use among suspected COVID-19 patients. The data was collected through an electronic link and cross-checked with that of the national database (Health Electronic Surveillance Network, HESN) and reports from the MOH Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) Committee. Results: Majority of the cases were males (70.4%). Upon reassessing the studied participants within 3-7 days, 240 patients (8.8%) discontinued the treatment protocol because of the development of side effects (4.1%) and for non-clinical reasons in the remaining (4.7%). Medication side effects overall were reported among (6.7%) of all studied participants, including mainly cardiovascular adverse events (2.5%), followed by gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (2.4%). No Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission or death were reported among these patients. Conclusion: In our study, results show that the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients in mild to moderate cases in an outpatient setting, within the protocol recommendation and inclusion/exclusion criteria, is safe, highly tolerable, and with minimum side effects.

10.1101/2020.08.16.20175752

Hydroxychloroquine Safety Outcome within Approved Therapeutic Protocol for COVID-19 Outpatients in Saudi Arabia

COVID-19 is characterized by an infectious pre-symptomatic period, when newly infected individuals can unwittingly infect others. We are interested in what benefits facemasks could offer as a non-pharmaceutical intervention, especially in the settings where high-technology interventions, such as contact tracing using mobile apps or rapid case detection via molecular tests, are not sustainable. Here, we report the results of two mathematical models and show that facemask use by the public could make a major contribution to reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our intention is to provide a simple modelling framework to examine the dynamics of COVID-19 epidemics when facemasks are worn by the public, with or without imposed ‘lock-down’ periods. Our results are illustrated for a number of plausible values for parameter ranges describing epidemiological processes and mechanistic properties of facemasks, in the absence of current measurements for these values. We show that, when facemasks are used by the public all the time (not just from when symptoms first appear), the effective reproduction number, Re, can be decreased below 1, leading to the mitigation of epidemic spread. Under certain conditions, when lock-down periods are implemented in combination with 100% facemask use, there is vastly less disease spread, secondary and tertiary waves are flattened and the epidemic is brought under control. The effect occurs even when it is assumed that facemasks are only 50% effective at capturing exhaled virus inoculum with an equal or lower efficiency on inhalation. Facemask use by the public has been suggested to be ineffective because wearers may touch their faces more often, thus increasing the probability of contracting COVID-19. For completeness, our models show that facemask adoption provides population-level benefits, even in circumstances where wearers are placed at increased risk. At the time of writing, facemask use by the public has not been recommended in many countries, but a recommendation for wearing face-coverings has just been announced for Scotland. Even if facemask use began after the start of the first lock-down period, our results show that benefits could still accrue by reducing the risk of the occurrence of further COVID-19 waves. We examine the effects of different rates of facemask adoption without lock-down periods and show that, even at lower levels of adoption, benefits accrue to the facemask wearers. These analyses may explain why some countries, where adoption of facemask use by the public is around 100%, have experienced significantly lower rates of COVID-19 spread and associated deaths. We conclude that facemask use by the public, when used in combination with physical distancing or periods of lock-down, may provide an acceptable way of managing the COVID-19 pandemic and re-opening economic activity. These results are relevant to the developed as well as the developing world, where large numbers of people are resource poor, but fabrication of home-made, effective facemasks is possible. A key message from our analyses to aid the widespread adoption of facemasks would be: ‘my mask protects you, your mask protects me’.

10.1098/rspa.2020.0376

A modelling framework to assess the likely effectiveness of facemasks in combination with ‘lock-down’ in managing the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectivesAs schools plan for re-opening, understanding the potential role children play in the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the factors that drive severe illness in children is critical.Study design: Children ages 0-22 years with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection presenting to urgent care clinics or being hospitalized for confirmed/suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) were offered enrollment in the MGH Pediatric COVID-19 Biorepository. Enrolled children provided nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, and/or blood specimens. SARS-CoV-2 viral load, ACE2 RNA levels, and serology for SARS-CoV-2 were quantified.ResultsA total of 192 children (mean age 10.2 +/- 7 years) were enrolled. Forty-nine children (26%) were diagnosed with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection; an additional 18 children (9%) met criteria for MIS-C. Only 25 (51%) of children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection presented with fever; symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, if present, were non-specific. Nasopharyngeal viral load was highest in children in the first 2 days of symptoms, significantly higher than hospitalized adults with severe disease (P = .002). Age did not impact viral load, but younger children had lower ACE2 expression (P=0.004). IgM and IgG to the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were increased in severe MIS-C (P<0.001), with dysregulated humoral responses observed.ConclusionThis study reveals that children may be a potential source of contagion in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in spite of milder disease or lack of symptoms, and immune dysregulation is implicated in severe post-infectious MIS-C.

10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.08.037

Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Responses

Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield on Friday forcefully advocated the reopening of U.S. schools, even as colleges and universities around the country have been forced to shut their doors prematurely ahead of the fall session, in order to contain a rise in COVID-19 infections.

Coronavirus update: CDC chief backs school reopenings; Pfizer lifts curtain on vaccine data

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is coming to an end, and if we're not super careful about reopening our schools and daycare centres, experts warn children could soon play a much bigger role in the pandemic.

Some 'Healthy' Kids Can Carry as Much COVID-19 Virus as Severely Sick Adults

Cheap and quick, they could move us toward normalcy before a vaccine is widely available

‘Instant Coffee’ COVID-19 Tests Could Be the Answer to Reopening the U.S.

10.1016/j.jss.2020.03.074

We want to thank Mr Griffith and his co-author for their professionalism in voicing their opinions, which, unfortunately, is becoming increasingly rare in the days of social media, an issue we will come back to at the end of this letter. Their professionalism should be congratulated and even celebrated.

Response: The Proliferation and Misinterpretation of “As Safe As” Statements in Surgical Science: A Call for Professional Discourse to Search for a Solution

Statistical power is a useful but often misunderstood concept. Briefly, it represents the probability of rejecting a null hypothesis under some assumed conditions of a prospective experiment (distribution of the study outcome, planned sample size, and prespecified significance level to be used in the analysis). Most generally, we compute statistical power while planning comparative-effectiveness trials to ensure that the study will be large enough to conclude that an effect is present, if a meaningful effect truly exists.

10.1016/j.jss.2019.10.049

Post Hoc Power: Not Empowering, Just Misleading

Background Many articles in the surgical literature were faulted for committing type 2 error, or concluding no difference when the study was “underpowered”. However, it is unknown if the current power standard of 0.8 is reasonable in surgical science. Methods PubMed was searched for abstracts published in Surgery, JAMA Surgery, and Annals of Surgery and from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2016, with Medical Subject Heading terms of randomized controlled trial (RCT) or observational study (OBS) and limited to humans were included ( n = 403). Articles were excluded if all reported findings were statistically significant ( n = 193), or if presented data were insufficient to calculate power ( n = 141). Results A total of 69 manuscripts (59 RCTs and 10 OBSs) were assessed. Overall, the median power was 0.16 (interquartile range [IQR] 0.08-0.32). The median power was 0.16 for RCTs (IQR 0.08-0.32) and 0.14 for OBSs (IQR 0.09-0.22). Only 4 studies (5.8%) reached or exceeded the current 0.8 standard. Two-thirds of our study sample had an a priori power calculation ( n = 41). Conclusions High-impact surgical science was routinely unable to reach the arbitrary power standard of 0.8. The academic surgical community should reconsider the power threshold as it applies to surgical investigations. We contend that the blueprint for the redesign should include benchmarking the power of articles on a gradient scale, instead of aiming for an unreasonable threshold.

10.1016/j.jss.2019.03.062

Is the Power Threshold of 0.8 Applicable to Surgical Science?—Empowering the Underpowered Study

Of course, our plans may still go to hell in a hand basket. From the @CSBS_Illinois vantage point, behavioral and social science could be critical to the situation, but we may need to shift our priorities and consider other perspectives in order to wield more influence 23/

Combining constant testing with comprehensive exposure notification, mask use, and curtailing large gatherings, there is hope that we can keep the outbreaks, which will happen, to a minimum (thanks South Korea and other countries for showing us how it is done, btw). 22/

In the case of @Illinois_Alma, our ability and motivation to test twice a week is a great example of creating conditions where individual differences will hopefully not matter enough to close us down. 21/

The efforts so far have focused on individuals changing their own behavior. While that is 1 solution, another “social science” solution is to create conditions where the individual differences don’t matter. This idea does not seem to be considered as much as one would hope. 20/

Pay students not to party? Gift cards for wearing masks? TikTok threads supporting social distancing? They probably wouldn't hurt, but they are not magic bullets. 19/

Punishment--threatening expulsion and the like--is simple behaviorism. Of course, it is only the stick part of behaviorism. While adding in some carrots would not hurt, I am hard pressed to identify any proactive incentive structure that would magically fix the situation. 18/

The futility of a situationist position is no better demonstrated by the repeated cycle happening at universities where administrators wish their undergrad would simply behave differently and they don’t. I mean how much more of a strong situation do you need than a pandemic? 17/

Situationism assumes that the overriding cause of human behavior is the incentives in any given situation. Change the situation, change the behavior. There is no need to consider prior standing on any attribute or population characteristics. 16/

The idea that college students would miraculously and immediately overcome their well known propensities to be a bit more cavalier than their older patrons is the hallmark of situationism. 15/

The two dominant approaches taken by universities to the need for self-control have been magical thinking or punishment. Interestingly, both magical thinking and punishment do reflect established social and behavioral science paradigms. 14/

Relatedly, many folks, like @dynarski, are appropriately taking universities to task for expecting 19-year olds to get on the COVID-19 behavioral bandwagon and toe the self-control line. HT @sTeamTraen 13/

So, until we start providing data that can help in applied settings, like the one we are facing, I think we should refrain from saying that we should be heard or have more influence. We need to have something to say of value first. 12/

Knowing the compliance % would be rather useful to the modelers right now, but that is applied research. Having hard science envy, we over value “basic science” which is designed to be as useless as possible for applied issues like these. (maybe we can change that too) 11/

Partially, it is because we don’t have much usable knowledge to provide. I know that undergrads are more impulsive and anxious than older populations, but I don’t know how that translates into something useful like the % of students will shirk our requests to comply. 10/

The second reason for our lack of influence is well-worn preference for biological and technical answers to our pandemic problems--the old bias toward the hard sciences issue. While I could complain about this bias, I won’t. Why? 9/

Over time, the student affairs people, given our myopic focus on our own research needs, appropriately began to rely on other social scientists, but not the ones employed as researchers at their own university (maybe we can do things differently going forward...) 8/

The only reasons for us to work with student affairs in the past was to plead with them to selfishly use their data or gain access to the students so we could collect our own data. 7/

First, front line social and behavioral science researchers have seldom helped the units that were charged with the day-to-day activities of undergraduates, like the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs office. 6/

While I feel like my university has afforded the @CSBS_Illinois the chance to inform the process, for which I am grateful, for the most part, our efforts have not been systematically incorporated into the pandemic planning. I see at least two reasons for that, IMHO. 5/

We posted information on how social and behavioral science knowledge could help. https://csbs.research.illinois.edu/news-events/social-and-behavioral-science-and-covid-19/… Conducted workshops: https://csbs.research.illinois.edu/understandingcontemporarychallenges/… Ran studies: https://csbs.research.illinois.edu/news-events/blog/… and wrote blogs: https://csbs.research.illinois.edu/2020/08/16/what-we-know-about-college-students-to-help-manage-covid-19/… 4/

At the @CSBS_Illinois, we started curating social and behavioral science insights from day 1 in an attempt to provide information to our community. 3/

Being at a University (@Illinois_Alma) that has, to my knowledge, created the most informed and comprehensive system to open safely, and being the director of our social and behavioral science unit (@CSBS_Illinois) I have some thoughts I’d like to share. 2/

Thread alert: There is a lot of back and forth about the use and abuse of behavioral and social science knowledge to help universities and colleges open up to in-person education, or not, in the time of COVID-19. 1/

in a nutshell, we are asking students to be 1) conspicuously more organized and disciplined, and to take a lot more highly regulated actions, at least in relation to health and symptomatology, 2) be much more socially isolated than before given social distancing and group restrictions; 3) commit to serious communitarian behaviors and attitudes that would be needed in order to comply with many, many additional requests from campus, and 4) tolerate much more uncertainty than normal. 

What We Know About College Students to Help Manage COVID-19

In unprecedented times, uncertainty abounds. The onset of a global pandemic is no exception. The pandemic is changing the ways we work, socialize, learn, and prosper. To better understand the societal impacts and challenges shaped by COVID-19, we are partnering with the University of Illinois Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute for a new series: Ask the Experts: Understanding Contemporary Challenges in the Time of COVID-19

Understanding Contemporary Challenges

The COVID-19 outbreak is one of the most challenging experiences our society has faced. It is also very much a social and behavioral science issue. Until we have a vaccine or therapeutics that can treat the disease, our primary tools for mitigating the impact of COVID-19 are social and behavioral in nature. Social distancing, washing our hands, not touching our faces, confronting isolation, and coordinating with others, require changes in our behaviors and social conditions that will be transformative for our society and for each of us as individuals. The disease itself will affect some parts of society more than others. Even if we find a way to treat the disease it will most likely change the way we behave and the way we relate to one another for many years. Additionally, coping with the stress of the disease and the convulsion it will cause our society necessitates bringing to bear resources from social policy, and mental as well as physical health. As all of these issues are the purview of social and behavioral scientists, we are sharing information curated by the CSBS team on the social and behavioral issues raised by COVID-19. The goal of this page is to inform and provide resources for the CSBS community in Champaign-Urbana and beyond.

Social and Behavioral Science and COVID-19

The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head—but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.In her harrowing, defiant, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological.     The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions--autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a page-turning medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine.

The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness

In the bestselling tradition of Stuff Matters and The Disappearing Spoon a clever and engaging look at materials, the innovations they made possible, and how these technologies changed us. In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions--clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips--and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes, among other things, how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; how the necessary brevity of the telegram influenced Hemingway's writing style; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid's cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. These fascinating and inspiring stories offer new perspectives on our relationships with technologies. Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences--intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors--particularly people of color and women--who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal--whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR.

The Alchemy of Us (Hardcover)