Posted October 7, 2019
They weren't the first to invent LED lights. Red ones had been created in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and green LEDs were created after that...
And then, finally - in the late 1980s - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura invented blue colored LEDs. This discovery finally allowed people to create white LEDs, because a bright blue LED beneath a yellow translucent covering makes a beautiful, warm white light.
If all LEDs were still red, we'd use them a lot less, wouldn't we???
On this date in 2014, the three Japanese physicists won a Nobel Prize for their technological development.
So...what's the big deal?
LEDs are extremely efficient, long-lasting, and can be used without access to a power grid. They don't get hot, they save energy, and ultimately they save a lot of money.
Many of us in the developed world are switching out all our incandescent bulbs - and certainly our horrible (and mercury poisoning!) fluorescent bulbs - yuck! - to LED light bulbs. As a matter of fact, many of us already did so a long time ago and have been saving power and money for a while now!
And LED lights are used in almost every electronic device - we don't really know or notice all the LEDs surrounding us.
Now, if we can just switch over from wood-burning and other greenhouse-gas-emitting technologies to LED lighting in the developing world - well, that would be awesome for everyone!
Check out this and this video about LEDs. And here is an article, complete with diagrams and a video, about how Light Emitting Diodes work.
Also on this date:
(First full week of October)
(First full week of October)
