The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Physics Prize for 2014 for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources. The inventor recipients are Isamu Akasaki, of Meijo University in Nagoya and Nagoya University, Japan; Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, Japan, and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

This year’s Nobel Laureates are being rewarded by the Nobel Foundation for inventing a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source – the blue light-emitting diode (LED). In the spirit of Alfred Nobel the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to humankind. The invention of the blue LEDs makes possible for white light to be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources.

Red and green light-emitting diodes had been around for a much longer, but without the 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.

Then 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. 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.

White LED lamps emit a bright white light and 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 Earth’s electrical energy 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 LEDs low power requirements they can be powered by cheap local solar power.

The invention of the blue LED is just twenty years old, but it has already contributed to creating a white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has stirred up a lot of negative response over the years, particularly from political pressures used in the Peace Prize. Never the less, the science prizes are well worth consideration as any top valued work from anywhere on earth is going to be considered. Its a bit disappointing with so very many scientific achievements to choose from that only one per year per category is a winner.

But picking one is what makes the news.


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