The inventors of the blue LED technology that “revolutionized” illumination, bringing cost-effective, efficient lighting to people around the world, won the Nobel Prize in Physics earlier this week.
“They succeeded where everyone else had failed,” stated the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “The invention of the blue LED is just 20 years old, but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.” Atkin notes that “those white LEDs soared in popularity for lighting systems, and for good reason—they are 20 times as efficient as incandescent bulbs; they lack the mercury-related health risks of fluorescent bulbs; and they last as long as 22 years before burning out.”
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