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The potential of light emitting diodes – tiny specks of semiconductor material – to replace Edison’s energy-wasting incandescent lightbulb had been recognized since their invention back in the early 1960s. LEDs give off no heat, use little energy, and last almost forever. But progress was thwarted: despite decades of effort, nobody could make an LED that would emit bright blue light, the pivotal component in order to make useful white light LEDs. Then, in 1993, a previously unknown researcher named Shuji Nakamura took the world by surprise. He made the key invention from which has grown the multibillion-dollar industry of solid-state lighting. Bob Johnstone, veteran technology writer and the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, traces the inventor’s epic story, how he invented his LED, and how his lights are changing our world.
Nakamura’s story begins in rural Japan, where the young researcher makes a fateful career choice that twenty years later leads to a revolutionary invention, ultimately kick-starting a major shift in the lighting industry. Nakamura follows up his bright blue light with a string of other inventions, including bright green and white LEDs, plus a blue microchip laser for use in next-generation DVD players. Overnight, he is propelled from obscurity to international celebrity, a showman who stuns audiences around the world.
Johnstone introduces the first visionaries to understand the potential of Nakamura’s new lights. They include entrepreneurs who founded start-ups to exploit color-changing technology, artists and architects who used LED technology to create new light art and building illumination, and a humanitarian who saw the educational possibilities of substituting clean LED lamps for dangerous kerosene lamps in developing countries like Nepal.
Back in Japan, Nakamura is hailed for his inventions while his employer makes huge profits selling them. Following a falling-out, Nakamura quits to join a US university. A bitter legal battle ensues. Nakamura stands up for the rights of the individual against the corporation – and wins.
Johnstone concludes with a look at the first general-purpose LED lights and how they are being enthusiastically embraced around the world, replacing incandescent bulbs and even fluorescent lamps. Early adopters include mandarins in China and home builders in California.
Bob Johnstone has been writing about the impact of technology on society for more than twenty years. The author of We Were Burning: Japanese Entrepreneurs and the Forging of the Electronic Age and Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers, and the Transformation of Learning. Johnstone has also been a correspondent for New Scientist, Far Eastern Economic Review, and Wired. He is a former fellow of the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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