Modern life makes extensive use of electronics. On a daily basis, we use smartphones, computers, and TVs in the home and robots in industry and commerce. This title outlines the development of electronics, from early vacuum tubes to today's microchips. It explains how semiconductors work at the atomic level and how they are made into solid-state devices essential for the Internet and other applications. A biographical chapter on J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron (the key to electronics), rounds out the text. Science projects readers can try at home illustrate principles of physics.