This TED Talk features chemist and tech shrinker Kathy Moleser, recorded live at TED at DuPont, 2019.

When I waltzed off to high school with my new Nokia phone, I thought I just had the new coolest replacement for my old pink princess walkie-talkie.

Except now, my friends and I could text or talk to each other wherever we were,

instead of pretending when we were running around each other's backyards.

Now, I'll be honest.

Back then, I didn't think a lot about how these devices were made.

They tended to show up on Christmas morning,

so maybe they were made by the elves in Santa's workshop. Let me ask you a question. Who do you

think the real elves that make these devices are? If I ask a lot of the people I know,

they would say it's the hoodie-wearing software engineers in Silicon Valley

hacking away a code. But a lot has to happen to these devices before they're ready for any kind of

code. These devices start at the atomic level. So if you ask me, the real elves are the chemists.

That's right. I said the chemists.

Chemistry is the hero of electronic communications.

And my goal today is to convince you to agree with me.

Okay, let's start simple,

and take a look inside these insanely addictive devices.

Because without chemistry, what is an information superhighway that we love

would just be a really expensive, shiny paperweight.

Chemistry enables all of these layers.

Let's start at the display.

How do you think we get those bright, vivid colors that we love so much?

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