Life would be completely different without transistors. For starters, there would be no personal computers or cell phones, so no Amazon, no video games, no dating apps, no messaging, no streaming, no social media, no Apple Pay or Google Maps, and no AI (hmm). Cars contain billions of transistors. They're really everywhere. So what is a transistor?

The best way to understand this pivotal technology is to follow the evolutionary trail, all the way back to the electric relays used in telegraphs in the 1800s.