This past Tuesday three scientists were awarded the 2014 Noble Prize in Physics for their creation of the blue light emitting diode (LED). This is the light source you can see lighting up and retrofitting everything for both our homes and places of work.
This trio is made up of professors Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura. Akasaki is a professor in Japan at Meijo University and Nagoya University; Amano is also a professor in Japan at Nagoya University; and Nakamura is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
For over 30 years, scientists have failed to create the blue diode. They have been able to create the red and green diodes, but it wasn’t until these three brilliant individuals in the 1990s were we able to have the blue diode created. The blue diode is what allows us to create the white lamps we have today.
LED lights last longer, are more efficient, save more energy and are environmentally-friendlier then traditional fluorescent and incandescent bulb. With using the same amount of energy, LED bulbs produce 40 times the light of fluorescent bulbs and 20 times that of incandescent.
The awarding committee said the trio’s work was founded on the grounds that follow Alfred Nobel, the prize founder. They also said “they hold great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lace access to electricity grids”.
The Royal Swedish Academy Sciences stated that, “Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps,”.