Science Ain't So Bad

10.5 WATTS'LL DO YA

SHIFTING TO LED

In 1980, we met the compact fluorescent light.

Ugh!

Small and twisty with nasty contents. You KNOW something THAT bad must have an environmental justification. Compact fluorescents (CFLs) are just just – I dunno – wrong! The color is off, the shapes are off, they’re just not RIGHT!

They say we’re sposed  to use more and more compact fluorescents because  incandescent light bulbs are on the way out. They (incandescent bulbs)  chew up watts faster’en my dog chews through a morselburger (a morsel of hamburger dropped, accidentally, on the floor).

‘course, if you don’t like compact fluorescent bulbs and you wanna do the the right thing and avoid incandescent bulbs, there are those nice hot orange-ish  halogen lights. MisterScienceAintSoBad likes ‘em better than CFLs.

But where are the  sturdy,cool,  long lasting light emitting diode (LED) bulbs which produce a lovely quality of light and  were promised in Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 1 (Let there be.. “)? Aren’t they the ultimate solution to lighting?

They’re a comin’.

If you’ve bought yerself a nice flashlight, lately, you’ve probably noticed that there are dozens of models that sport LED bulbs. Unlike the flashlights we grew up with  that  throw out a wavering  yellow dot, surrounded by greasy ringlets of yellow and get dimmer and dimmer with use, the new flashlights with LED bulbs are incredible. They’re bright and clear and last a spooky long time. There are tiny versions that surprise with great light and larger versions that ‘re almost like an automotive headlight. Aim one across a big field and you can actually SEE the coyote who’s checking you out. MisterScienceAintSoBad has one for dog walks.

The coyotes in my town are buying them too.

According to Cree, sales of LED lighting components have doubled in the past 12 months.

Doubled.

Home lighting? Just watch. Home Depot’s gearing up to sell a “65 watt LED bulb” that  only uses 10 watts of juice. The light quality will be terrific, it will last a ridiculously long time,  and, if it breaks, no hazmat suits. A vacuum cleaner’ll do nicely.

Implications

SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY: Cheap, bright, and disposable.

ORGANIC LIGHT-EMITTING ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS

I’ve never been a big fan of light coming from walls. Too much pressure on the dust devils.

But ACS Nano describes a new kind of light source made from graphene which consists of sheets of ultra efficient lighting material for displays and glowing walls and whatnot.

It makes it sound like the current hot technology for plastic displays, OLED, (have you even heard of it yet?) is old before its time.

Cheap, recyclable, and highly efficient, Organic Light – Emitting Electrochemical Cells ( LEC’s) sound fine but, having read one too many articles about big breakthroughs followed by deep and long lasting silence, MISTER ScienceAinSoBad is becoming a bit jaundiced. We’ll spare this fascinating tease a ScienceAintSoBadRAting = 7 until it shows itself to be a game changer.