
Tiny silicon, colossal power: how chips shape our world
Nature’s book review of The Chip Age argues that the semiconductor is the real backbone of modern life, tracing the history from early integrated circuits to today’s global supply chains. It highlights pioneers like Kilby and Noyce, explains ARM’s licensing-origin from Acorn, and shows how policy, subsidies, and trade battles helped build today’s chip-dominant world—led by Taiwan’s TSMC—while raising environmental, labor and geopolitical concerns that complicate the race for supremacy.













