A portrait taken December 1975 of US physicist Joh

HELSINKI, FINLAND: A portrait taken December 1975 of US physicist John Bardeen (1908-91) during a trip to Finland. Bardeen with William B. Shockley and Walter Brattain shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for jointly inventing the transistor, a solid-state device that could amplify electrical current. The transistor became the building block for all modern electronics and the foundation for microchip and computer technology. // Portrait datT de dTcembre 1975 du physicien et technicien amTricain John Bardeen, inventeur en 1948 en collaboration avec Walter Brattain et William B. Schrockley du transistor a pointe. Il donna en outre en 1957 une thTorie des supraconducteurs et retut le prix Nobel de physique en 1956 et 1972. (Photo credit should read AFP via Getty Images)