Don't tell me you haven't wondered this yourself. What a clever piece of technology that we all take for granted.

You may be thinking: “there is nothing I ever wanted to know about semiconductors.”

I assure you: there is.

This video, created by the excellent Farnam Street, dropped my jaw several times around a topic that is crucial to our way of life, yet is virtually invisible to the vast majority of us.

Take an hour and watch it. It may put many things (including the geopolitical tensions around Taiwan) into better perspective for you.

Like Omar Sharif materializing out of the shimmering desert as a man on a camel in “Lawrence of Arabia,” the elusive boson has been coming slowly into view since last winter, as the first signals of its existence grew until they practically jumped off the chart.

This is major, major news. If you don't know what the Higgs boson is, this article gives a great summary of what it is and the history of its discovery.