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2014 Nobel Prize In Physics Awarded To the Inventors of the Blue LED
grouchomarxist writes with word that "The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, the inventors of the blue LED." From the organization's press release:
When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a fundamental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades. They succeeded where everyone else had failed. Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small company in Tokushima. Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps. White LED lamps emit a bright white light, are long-lasting and energy-efficient. They are constantly improved, getting more efficient with higher luminous flux (measured in lumen) per unit electrical input power (measured in watt). The most recent record is just over 300 lm/W, which can be compared to 16 for regular light bulbs and close to 70 for fluorescent lamps. As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth's resources. Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights. The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power.
I've spent many a joyful hour gazing at the blue LED. My little blue pals.
It is a pity that their work inspired one of the most horrible trends in consumer electronics design... Seriously, the power light, on the front of the TV, where I'll be staring directly into it while trying to watch something?
Blue is pretty much necessary for LED illumination that doesn't look like some sort of emergency-power-failsafe-lighting scene; but damn is it ever overused...
Yes, we do have true white LEDs. The problem is the efficiency isn't up there, and it's based on a new nano-material (I can't remember if it was selenium or tungsten-based.)
We've got remote phosphor tech that works great for producing green - otherwise Cree wouldn't be hitting 300+ lumens per watt (given the lumen is weighted at 550-555nm green)
Also, green light is great for plants. Don't let old science fool you. Why do you think an HPS lamp works so well despite about 80% of its visible light output being green and yellow?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
http://www.lednews.org/eu-rese...
Sadly, they're way out of date with their math. We're hitting almost 50% with blue-based white LEDs right now.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I haven't seen any LEDs dying in one or two years. My oldest LED lamp is now 7 years and still excellent. (Doesn't show the kind of degradation that fluorescents often do after a couple of years.) And the cost is dropping fast. A few years ago, I bought a couple of LED bulbs for about $3 each, and they give excellent light.
The really cool thing is that they don't have to be bulbs. LED strips are popular, and can be programmed for different colours or patterns. You can have flat or other surfaces that emit light. The only real problem is that there's no good standard for it yet, so you get lots of different custom solutions with wires all over the place, but I'm sure that problem will eventually be solved, and then we'll have real SciFi lighting in our homes.
That's not the reason for the eyestrain, though.
Blue light actually triggers/worsens macular degeneration. It's such a high-energy photon that it causes physical damage. Long-suspected, recently experimentally confirmed by researchers in Spain.
This is why all of my monochromatic blue/red LED panels come with an eye hazard warning and always have. As soon as you go past sun levels of luminous flux in the blue range, you start hitting levels of retinal damage from photon overexposure in the blue wavelengths.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It seems they usually wait a while to make sure the invention/discovery is actually real. It seems once they awarded the prize, and the discovery turned out to be a misinterpretation of the data.
Contrast this to the method they use for awarding the peace prize, and think which one is better.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."