Lucy in the Sky with LEDs

December 22, 2008

What's not to like, excepting they haven't arrived in number yet (but they will). You can get any color you want, including rainbow or an accurate mix of the sun's spectrum, and no medication is required to see them. Here are just a few of the benies outlined in a just-published paper. LEDs are:

• More rugged, they're closer to plastic than glass
• Far more environmentally benign
• Big energy savers: up to 2,000% more efficient than conventional light bulbs and 500% more efficient than compact fluorescents

Of course with the economy crashing down all around us, for many there is good reason to believe there will never be a good investment again. But you'd have to be on drugs to not see the massive, multiple-industry-changing potential of these little beauties. There time is coming ... and quickly.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons