Chemistry+role+in+advancing+electronics

Chemists have always played a fundamental role in the dramatic advance of electronic**s** EVERY YEAR, computers fall in price even as they advance in capability, consistently fulfilling Moore's Law as if it were a natural principle. Consumers upgrade their systems and show appreciation by ranking the computer industry at the top of reputation indices. But when the subject of chemicals comes up, the smile disappears and a look of confusion takes its place. A consumer might recall stories about endocrine disrupters in baby bottles, explosives in drinking water or something else seen on the internet. It would almost certainly never cross their mind that computers and the rest of today's electronics are inseparably tied to chemistry, or that their manufacture relies on some of the most demanding chemistry practiced at scale. But Gordon Moore - the scientist who actually formulated Moore's Law - would know it quite well. Moore cofounded electronics innovator Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, and made his career in the electronics industry, but he took his PhD in physical chemistry and physics, and he considers himself a chemist to this day. Moore and countless other chemists have played a central role in the advancement of electronics, beginning with their fundamental work on silicon and extending into the present.