Physics Nobel won for invention of blue LEDs

It may be going too far to say this year’s Nobel prize in physics will save the world – but it will certainly make it more efficient.

The prize has gone to three semiconductor physicists who invented the blue LED (light emitting diode). Their invention has transformed the way we light our world, watch movies and store data.

Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano at Nagoya University in Japan, and Shuji Nakamura at the University of California in Santa Barbara, share the prize of 8 million Swedish kronor (£0.7 million).

LEDs as we know them were invented in the late 1950s, but only came in one colour: red. Green followed later, but although both were fine for indicator lights and digital watches, researchers really wanted a white LED. These are replacing traditional incandescent bulbs, which lose much of their energy as heat.

“Lighting currently consumes 20 per cent of all electricity,” says Colin Humphreys at the University of Cambridge. “Switching to LEDs could save 50 per cent, or over £2 billion in the UK alone.”

Colour addition

The key to producing white light was to make a blue LED and shine its light through a thin layer of yellow-emitting phosphor. This combination of yellow and blue makes white light much more efficiently than incandescent bulbs.

But blue LEDs had stymied researchers until the Nobel trio made their breakthrough in the late 1980s. The reason is to do with the way the devices are made. LEDs are made from multiple layers of semiconductor sandwiched together, one with an excess of electrons and the next with an excess of positively charged holes. Applying a voltage to the device drives the electrons and holes together into the “filling layer”, where they combine to emit light. The colour of this light depends on the semiconductor material. Red LEDs, for example, are made from gallium arsenide crystals.

Researchers realised that gallium nitride with a smattering of indium had the perfect quantum properties to emit blue light. But no one was able to make a semiconductor sandwich with a gallium nitride filling. That’s because the crystal structure of the gallium nitride needs to match that of the surrounding layers to prevent defects from forming that wreck the light-emitting properties.

In 1986, Akasaki and Amano succeeded in finding a match. Their trick was to add an extra layer to the sandwich. They grew their gallium nitride on top of a sapphire covered with a layer of aluminium nitride. Meanwhile Nakamura found his own way to create a gallium nitride crystal by growing a thin layer at low temperatures, then subsequent layers at higher temperatures. Nakamura had to work on his idea in secret after bosses at the Japanese company he worked for, Nichia, stopped his research because of lack of progress. Nakamura later sued Nichia and won more than $7 million compensation.

Blu movies

The trio went on to turn their blue LEDs into blue lasers, found in Blu-ray players. Because the wavelength of blue light is shorter than that of red LEDs, the beam can be focused to a small spot. This lets you cram more information on to a disc and read it out, giving Blu-rays a better picture quality than regular DVDs.

As well as saving money, LED lights can reduce pressure on Earth’s resources. Lights made from LEDs last for 100,000 hours, 10 times longer than fluorescent lamps and 100 times longer than incandescent bulbs. “The electronic circuits that control them give out before the LED,” says Humphreys.

He predicts many more advances to come.

Smart lighting that adapts to its surroundings could reduce energy bills by another 5 per cent. And by changing the phosphor coating on a blue LED it should be possible to produce lighting that mimics sunlight, which plays a key role in the human body clock. “This could be the end of jet lag and could improve the health of shift workers, who have been shown to have a higher risk of cancer.”

Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura will receive their award at the Nobel ceremony in December.

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MONSTER BLACK HOLE DISCOVERED AT COSMIC DAWN

The discovery of the brightest quasar in the early universe, powered by the most massive black hole yet known at that time presents a puzzle to researchers: How could something so massive and luminous form so early in the universe, only 900 million years after the Big Bang?

The discovery of this quasar, named SDSS J0100+2802, marks an important step in understanding how quasars, the most powerful objects in the universe, have evolved from the earliest epoch, only 900 million years after the Big Bang, which is thought to have happened 13.7 billion years ago. The quasar, with its central black hole mass of 12 billion solar masses and the luminosity of 420 trillion suns, is at a distance of 12.8 billion light-years from Earth.

The discovery of this ultraluminous quasar also presents a major puzzle to the theory of black hole growth at early universe, according to Xiaohui Fan, Regents’ Professor of Astronomy at the UA’s Steward Observatory, who co-authored the study.

The quasar dates from a time close to the end of an important cosmic event that astronomers referred to as the “epoch of reionization”: the cosmic dawn when light from the earliest generations of galaxies and quasars is thought to have ended the “cosmic dark ages” and transformed the universe into how we see it today.

Discovered in 1963, quasars are the most powerful objects beyond our Milky Way galaxy, beaming vast amounts of energy across space as the supermassive black hole in their center sucks in matter from its surroundings. Thanks to the new generation of digital sky surveys, astronomers have discovered more than 200,000 quasars, with ages ranging from 0.7 billion years after the Big Bang to today.

Shining with the equivalent of 420 trillion suns, the new quasar is seven times brighter than the most distant quasar known (which is 13 billion years away). It harbors a black hole with mass of 12 billion solar masses, proving it to be the most luminous quasar with the most massive black hole among all the known high redshift (very distant) quasars.

“By comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy has a black hole with a mass of only 4 million solar masses at its center; the black hole that powers this new quasar is 3,000 time heavier,” Fan said.

Feige Wang, a doctoral student from Peking University who is supervised jointly by Fan and Prof. Xue-Bing Wu at Peking University, the study’s lead author, initially spotted this quasar for further study.

“This quasar was first discovered by our 2.4-meter Lijiang Telescope in Yunnan, China, making it the only quasar ever discovered by a 2-meter telescope at such distance, and we’re very proud of it,” Wang said. “The ultraluminous nature of this quasar will allow us to make unprecedented measurements of the temperature, ionization state and metal content of the intergalactic medium at the epoch of reionization.”

Following the initial discovery, two telescopes in southern Arizona did the heavy lifting in determining the distance and mass of the black hole: the 8.4-meter Large Binocular Telescope, or LBT, on Mount Graham and the 6.5-meter Multiple Mirror Telescope, or MMT, on Mount Hopkins. Additional observations with the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope in Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, and the 8.2-meter Gemini North Telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, confirmed the results.

“This quasar is very unique,” said Xue-Bing Wu, a professor of the Department of Astronomy, School of Physics at Peking University and the associate director of the Kavli Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. “Just like the brightest lighthouse in the distant universe, its glowing light will help us to probe more about the early universe.”

Wu leads a team that has developed a method to effectively select quasars in the distant universe based on optical and near-infrared photometric data, in particular using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Explorer, or WISE, satellite.

“This is a great accomplishment for the LBT,” said Fan, who chairs the LBT Scientific Advisory Committee and also discovered the previous record holders for the most massive black hole in the early universe, about a fourth of the size of the newly discovered object. “The especially sensitive optical and infrared spectrographs of the LBT provided the early assessment of both the distance of the quasars and the mass of the black hole at the quasar’s center.”

For Christian Veillet, director of the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, or LBTO, this discovery demonstrates both the power of international collaborations and the benefit of using a variety of facilities spread throughout the world.

“This result is particularly gratifying for LBTO, which is well on its way to full nighttime operations,” Veillet said. “While in this case the authors used two different instruments in series, one for visible light spectroscopy and one for near-infrared imaging, LBTO will soon offer a pair of instruments that can be used simultaneously, effectively doubling the number of observations possible in clear skies and ultimately creating even more exciting science.”

ELON MUSK’S HOME BATTERY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR GREEN TECH

Tech innovator Elon Musk already has a string of enviable successes behind him, such as global e-payment solution PayPal and SpaceX’s launch rockets. He’s now making serious waves in the renewable energy industry by popularizing electric vehicles manufactured by Tesla Motors and bringing solar power to the masses with SolarCity. Tesla has just announced a potentially revolutionary “Powerwall” battery for home use that could make solar power even more enticing and accessible than it was before.

This battery enables customers to store extra electricity generated by their solar panels and then use it at times when the panels aren’t producing energy, such as during the night or when it’s cloudy outside. This ameliorates one of the disadvantages of solar power: that it can only be produced intermittently as opposed to the electricity provided by utility companies, which is available 24/7. The Powerwall could thus drastically cut into the profits of traditional power companies by enabling regular homeowners to make more efficient use of their solar equipment.

This recently released device works well with the solar leases offered by SolarCity. By taking advantage of solar leases, cash-strapped people can get a solar energy system installed at their homes without having to pay anything down. They instead pay a low rate each month until the lease is over. Now that the Powerwall battery has been developed, these deals may become even more attractive to potential clients.

According to Musk, “The issue with existing batteries is that they suck.” They have generally been too costly, bulky, or unreliable for typical consumers to get good use out of them. The Powerwall comes with a 10-year warranty to address reliability concerns. It doesn’t take as much space as most batteries with dimensions of roughly 4 feet by 3 feet by 7 inches and it can be mounted indoors or outside. On the pricing front, the new battery debuted in two models: one costing $3,500 and another one at $3,000. With its new Gigafactory in Nevada, currently under construction, Tesla looks poised to dramatically expand battery production, driving prices much lower in the coming years.

A few hundred residential customers have already been using prototype batteries from SolarCity as part of a pilot project. Walmart has also been testing out electrical storage systems from SolarCity as part of a long-term contract to adopt solar power in its retail locations. These installations have allegedly led to a 20 or 30 percent reduction in energy costs for stores that use the Tesla battery.

As more people come to utilize the powerful combination of solar photovoltaic cells and affordable home batteries, there may be less demand for electricity supplied by utility companies. Some of these firms are fighting this new development by targeting solar users with extra fees but others seem to be positioning themselves as installers and managers of electric infrastructure in order to remain relevant.

3D BALL MILL CAPABLE OF EFFICIENT PULVERIZATION AND MIXING WITH HIGH-SPEED 3D MOTION

Nagao System developed the 3D Ball Mill, a unique ball mill that has rotation axes along both the vertical and horizontal axes.

A ball mill may be a device accustomed produce an excellent finer powder material by inserting the sample (powder) into a instrumentality along with arduous balls fabricated from material like ceramic so rotating the contents to smash them along. a traditional ball mill may be a rotating ball mill that features a hollow instrumentality and rotates in one direction.

Nagao System has designed a ball mill within which the instrumentality, that is found at the intersection of the X and Y axes, is revolved in 3 dimensions victimisation these 2 axes. This action permits the contents to be small-grained at over double the potency compared to standard machines.

“There in all probability don’t seem to be the other ball mills with high-speed 3D motion. antecedently for 3D motion, a motor with separate X and Y axes was required. By employing a pinion and ring gear created of a hollow shaft and rubber contact, we have a tendency to unreal a singular 3D rotation style that’s organized to severally rotate on the X and Y axes at speeds starting from low speed to radical high speed.”

“We spun concerning fifty g of roughly one00-micron powder with 1 kilo of oxide balls. The powder came out fine enough that it will enter between the fingerprint ridges. additionally, the warmth generated was but 5℃, and this technique was evidenced to even have low operative power necessities of but one hundred W.”

Because the 3D ball mill instrumentality moves in its totality, heat is spread creating it troublesome to achieve high temperatures, so this can be favorable for pulverizing additionally as distributing and intermixture material not notably proof against heat like organic material. additionally, the middle of the instrumentality develops a pseudo microgravity state, therefore Nagao System is additionally considering applications that utilize this characteristic.

“What antecedently failed to combine well along can currently combine uniformly. As for what is going to happen moving forward, our dream simply continue to grow. Dry powders that so far might solely be ground all the way down to the micrometer level have the potential to travel from the nano level to the molecular level. A similar microgravity state happens at the intersection of the X and Y axes, therefore area materials like alloys, compounds, and proteins can even be created. we have a tendency to may additionally be able to build new materials and medicines.”

GREASELESS BEARINGS THAT ELIMINATE SLIDING FRICTION

Bearings are components used to reduce friction so objects can rotate more smoothly. Bearings have a long history; their principle is even illustrated in ancient Egyptian paintings. As bearings are essential for making machinery run consistently, they’re widely used in familiar items such as cars and electrical appliances.

Bearings have balls that roll between associate degree inner ring associate degreed an outer ring. There area unit retainers to prevent the balls protrusive to every alternative. applied scientist sculpturer designed bearings like this five hundred years agone, and also the style hasn’t modified since then. the matter with bearings is that slippy happens between the retainers and also the balls, therefore grease has been essential. however the ADB, or autonomous suburbanized bearing, that we’ve developed doesn’t want retainers.”

In bearings, retainers are essential, to stop contact between balls. however Coo area has succeeded in separating the balls while not exploitation retainers, by creating indentations within the outer ring wherever the balls bit it.

“Ordinary bearing balls roll whereas up-to-date with the ring directly beneath. If you create holes within the half directly beneath, that the balls roll whereas creating contact horizontally, the number of movement per revolution is a smaller amount. that produces the balls curtail, then speed up, therefore behind associate degree accelerated ball, there’s invariably a spot. That’s the principle here: The balls area unit separated by fastness them down and rushing them up terribly slightly.”

SNAKES EVOLVED FROM BURROWING ANCESTOR

The research is the newest for you to declare that snakes changed by area lizards which dropped their particular arms or legs while changing to your slithery, subterranean life-style (SN: 8/22/15, r. 10). A different concept posits which today’s snakes originated by boat reptiles — that has a svelte body and not enough thighs providing while changes to advance via a watery residence.

Paleontologists Hongyu Yi of the University associated with Edinburgh and Indicate Norell of the U . s . Memorial associated with Natural Record throughout Ny applied X-ray runs to develop 3-D electronic models of the particular interior ears associated with 46 fossil and contemporary reptile kinds.

Snakes operate the interior ear, a tiny construction within the skull, intended for harmony and experiencing. The interior ears associated with snakes moving into distinct circumstances possess telltale forms, the particular analysts observed. Burrowers’ interior ears look additional higher than these associated with different reptiles — such as a go up bandaged along with a piece of cord. Such a construction have been connected with low-frequency experiencing, and can have helped subterranean snakes find the particular rumbling vibrations associated with potential predators as well as animals.

VAMPIRE BATS SHARE BLOOD TO MAKE FRIENDS

Two years ago, Carter and Wilkinson appeared to rule out the harassment theory when they reported that donor bats were more likely to approach starving ones first. And now they’ve gathered evidence that being generous may help the bats widen their social network and ensure that they’ll get fed when they need some help.Carter along with Wilkinson caused some sort of attentive nest associated with vampire bats attracted from a few zoos so they would have combining linked along with not related animals. Through 2010 to be able to 2014, the particular bats’ food revealing seemed to be recorded — who provided whom along with the way they had been linked (or not). Next the scientists performed a few trial offers in which they prevented a lady from consuming — to ensure that she would be definitely keen — along with recorded that bats, in case virtually any, would likely nourish the girl in case the girl earlier contributor, which include in close proximity family members, had been often apart or even in addition depriving yourself of food.

Bats which got formerly also been ample inside giving nonrelatives got a lot more contributor along with been given a lot more food once they had been inside have to have, the particular analysts statement November 20 within the Process of the Royal Culture W.

“Bats which might be a lot more ample are generally provided a lot more once they fail to nourish. That they count on some sort of interpersonal assistance network, along with by doing so, the particular bats possess some thing related to be able to man friendship, ”.