Silicon Planet

From NHPR, this is Outside In, a show where curiosity and the natural world collide.

I'm your host, Nate Heggie, here with producer extraordinaire, Taylor Quimby.

All right, Nate, uh, I wanna play a little word association game, okay?

Okay.

I'm gonna name an element from the periodic table, and I want you to blurt out, like, the first word that comes to mind.

Ready?

Yes.

Oxygen.

Uh, air, life.

Carbon.

Life again.

Silicon.

Bill Gates.

Bill Gates.

[laughs] So you hear silicon, and you're thinking Silicon Valley.

Am I right, Nate?

Yeah, exactly.

Computers.

I'm here in Silicon Valley this week.

The top-

The Silicon Valley Index comes out-

These Silicon Valley guys do not, you know, a lot of times-

Well, well, well, Nate Heggie, you fell right into my trap.

I did.

So yes, silicon is rightly associated with the tech industry because all the chips that power our phones and computers are indeed made of silicon.

Yes.

But here is my beef.

These other elements, they get major league science cred.

You know, y- you heard oxygen and carbon, and you were thinking big thoughts, chemistry, you know, Earth, the universe.

Life, the universe, and everything.

Yeah.

Silicon gets so tied to Silicon Valley, it's like a talented actor that got cast in one big budget franchise and cannot escape the association.

It's the Tom Holland of, of elements.

Yeah, it would be like if your first thought when I mentioned oxygen was Oprah and the Oxygen Network.

[laughs] Exactly.

[laughs]

And I am here to correct the record because silicon is just as cool and just as essential as those other things.

Two, three.

You get a car.

You get a car.

You get a car.

You get a car.

You get a car.

You get a car.