ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the science behind the marvelous piece of technology known as the cell phone. Here kids will learn about transistors and how they form the basis of all modern electronics. Also, this chapter looks at materials science which is the field that takes discoveries in physics and chemistry and uses them to arrange atoms to do what we want them to do. Blacksmiths, among the earliest materials scientists, melted iron and charcoal together to make steel. Egyptian materials scientists found that melting sand and alkaline made glass. Kids will also learn how oxides are being studied to replace silicon and how magnets have all sorts of interesting properties for electronics because they are nonvolatile which means they don’t use power to maintain stored information.
