Cellphones Rock

Cellphones put the power of the world at our fingertips. With the touch of a finger, you can instantly connect with your doctor, have food delivered to your office, or simply obliterate your niece at Words with Friends. And it's all made possible by rocks formed millions of years ago, deep underground. Join us as we bust open our devices to figure out how these stones power our phones.

Transcript

Guests:

• Joshua A. Bell, curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
• Michael Wise, geologist in the department of mineral sciences at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
• Josh Lepawsky, professor of geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland

Smithsonian Links:

• Visit Cellphone: Unseen Connections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History through 2026.
• Get a behind the scenes look at the exhibition and the objects selected in a Smithsonian magazine interview with Joshua Bell.
• Explore more gems, rocks, and minerals from the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in an online GeoGallery.
• Dig deeper on the science of pegmatites, the large crystals they contain, and how they fuel the tech we use every day in an episode of Smithsonian Science How?