The End Of The Light Bulb?

The likely eventual replacement of common light bulbs by LEDs may come quicker thanks to an accidental discovery announced this week. Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big… When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant colour. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. I was surprised when a white glow covered the table, Bowers said. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow