Everyone gets silicon and silicone mixed up. Silicone with an ending e is the oozy stuff you use as a shampoo base, fake breasts and caulking. It is basically long chains of silicon and oxygen and that recipe just so happens to form see-through goop. Take out the oxygen and you’re left with a blue gray, glassy material whose electrical properties can vary from good to terrible. That property is exploited to great effect in all things tech (hence Silicon Valley).

Creating super-pure silicon in large quantities is an essential part of making electronics available to even the poorest regions of the world. While the process is highly technical and involved, the scales involved are truly industrial. Buying a little of this interesting metalloid element is likewise quite affordable.