Sand to Silicon is just such an attempt an excursion into the past- to see how these technologies were developed, and the role played by the Indian scientists and engineers. It covers the entire gamut of developments in semiconductors, computers, fibre optics, telecommunications, optical technologies and the Internet.

In recent years has become increasingly clear that both China and India are competing with the US for technological supremacy as well as market share. Preeg, whose credits include senior positions in finance and development in the US government as well as academic posts, gives policy makers in the private and public sectors fair warning as he analyzes the rise of science and technology in China and India, their development in trade and export competitiveness, the rise of Indian and Chinese multinational companies and their technological innovations, and the geopolitical and geostrategic dimensions of their move into technology. He also describes the response of the US, including recent international financial, trade and investment policy, domestic economic policy responses to international competition, and the future of the role of America as leader in what has become a triangular form of leadership.

A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives. After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future. And, incredibly, we're running out of it. The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.

Silicon is the material of the digital revolution, of solar energy and of digital photography, which has revolutionized both astronomy and medical imaging. It is also the material of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), indispensable components of smart objects. The discovery of the electronic and optoelectronic properties of germanium and silicon during the Second World War, followed by the invention of the transistor, ushered in the digital age. Although the first transistors were made from germanium, silicon eventually became the preferred material for these technologies. Silicon, From Sand to Chips 1 traces the history of the discoveries, inventions and developments in basic components and chips that these two materials enabled one after the other. The book is divided into two volumes and this first volume is devoted to basic microelectronic components.