Imagine a world without computers, cell phones or all modern electronics. This would be a world without John Bardeen. In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain invented the transistor which amplifies and switches electronic signals. The "solid state" transistor replaced vacuum tubes as the building block of modern radios and other small electronic devices. In this program, Big Ten Network Illinois Campus Programming examines the spark of genius that fired in Bardeen throughout his life and while he worked as a professor in Electrical Engineering and Physics.