Goodbye, Mr. Microchips

Jack Kilby, whose invention of the integrated circuit led to the creation of the microchip, has died at the age of 81. Without him, we might still be waiting for loud cellphone conversations during movies, ultra-violent computer games and the DVD of Leonard, Part 6. The integrated circuit was one of more than 60 patents he held in a career capped by the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000.