How ASML took over the world

Neil Hacker explains how Europe built a technology giant.Image credit: ASML.The phones we carry around in our pockets have two million times more memory and are thousands of times faster than the room-sized computers that guided the Apollo mission to the Moon. This incredible shrinking act has been driven by our ability to make transistors smaller and smaller.Each transistor is a microscopic switch that can alternate between a one and a zero, the basic language of all computing. Billions are pac...