Quartz

The silicon in chips comes from ordinary sand; what is rare is the crucible that melts it. Quartz is crystallised silica, the most common mineral of beaches and mountains, and it really is what gets thrown into the arc furnace. But the crucible in which the ingot is then pulled must be of a quartz so pure that a single deposit in the world supplies most of it: Spruce Pine, North Carolina, where 70 to 90%1 of the planet's crucibles come from. When Hurricane Helene drowned the valley in 20242, the mines closed for weeks and the whole chip industry watched the weather. Turn the crystal in your hand: it is ordinary, and it is the beginning of everything. Your phone is at the other end of this journey, in your other hand.