The Nobel Prize for Physics was just announced and awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki of the Meijo University in Japan, Hiroshi Amano of the Nagoya University in Japan and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara. "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."
Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, made the announcement.
Chalmers University of Technology Professor Per Delsing put a lamp on the panel's table to illustrate the laureate's findings.
"Red and green LEDs have been around for many years, but the blue was really missing," Delsing said while switching light-source colors. "This lamp contains three LEDs: one red, one green, one blue. If you combine these colors, you get white light. This is something that Isaac Newton showed already in 1671. Thanks to the blue LED, we can now get white light sources which have very high energy efficiency and very long lifetime."
"This LED technology is now replacing older technologies. In fact," said Delsing while reaching in his pocket, "many of you carry this technology in your pocket." Delsing produced his cell phone. "The flashlight and also the screen of modern smart phones uses LED technology," he stated while shining his cell phone's flashlight.
