

Nobel Prize snub: Why blue LED is worthy while the very first LED was not - xname
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Nobel-Prize-snub-Professor-Nick-Holonyak/story-23061154-detail/story.html

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golgappi
The Nobel prize has largely become arbitrary in its pursuit of being the most
exclusive awards. After knowing about just a few instances like Obama getting
the Peace prize as soon as he was elected the President, this year's Physics
prize going to only 3 scientists for what actually is the result of many more
people working in a group, and now this - I think the award is losing its
charm. It has certainly lost respect in my eyes. Its only a matter of time
before it becomes an obsolete concept.

Seems ironic that a body that recognizes people for exceptional work in the
sciences, it itself is based on highly subjective and debatable decisions.

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jdonaldson
You can argue that the blue led has done more to improve things than the
original. Blue was the missing led color for many years, meaning that low
cost/power light bulbs and displays were not possible. The original led was
used primarily for indicator lights, while the blue led enables a great leap
forward in the way we provide lighting and display surfaces.

Also, the problem/solution for blue leds was way more interesting and
challenging imho.

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scott_karana
The article points out some other big uses of original red LEDs: fibre optic
networks, and CD/DVDs.

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jdonaldson
That's very true. Those were both huge.

One more small counterpoint... DWM in fiber optic networks was given a huge
boost by blue leds. The increase in bandwidth has led to multimedia streaming
services that have made conventional optical disks largely outdated for
consumer use... even the more recent blu ray formats designed to take
advantage of the blue leds are not as popular any more.

