The opening paragraphs of this article make the curious observation that silicon dioxide is “little noticed outside the semiconductor industry.” That is, of course, nonsense. Silicon dioxide, widely known as quartz, is known to far more people than is silicon, the stuff of semiconductors. It has been valued by humans since we first started fashioning tools and has been admired for its beauty. Its piezoelectric properties put this same material at the cornerstone of all 20th century telecommunications, where it was used as an oscillator. Little noticed?
Larry Mutti Huntington, Pa.
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