1 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,319 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, I have a question about Noble prices. Well, 2 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: you know they aren't awarded until much later this year 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,480 Speaker 1: or so, don't stay up late and wait by your phone. Really, 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,119 Speaker 1: they don't give one for podcasts. No, and they also 5 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: don't give a banana prize. Well, my question is about 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: the Physics Nobel Prize. Well, I'm not staying up late 7 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: and waiting by the phone either. Well, my question is 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: whether it's given to some discovery that is deep or 9 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: a discovery that's useful to humanity. Why does it have 10 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: to be one or the other. Isn't deep knowledge also useful? 11 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: Have you found new trinos to be useful to humanity? 12 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: Not yet? Actually, I'm still waiting for aliens to teach 13 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: us how to use new trinos to get a safe tan. Yeah, 14 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: don't wait by the phone for that. Sweden call me, Jupiter, 15 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: call me? What does that even mean? If they're Aliens 16 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: and Jupiter? I want the Jovia Noble Prize for Best 17 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: Podcast Sidekick. You're not the sidekick. I'm what what I am? 18 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,040 Speaker 1: John make cartoon is and the creator of PhD comments 19 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and until a moment ago, 20 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 1: I thought I was the sidekick on this podcast, and 21 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: so welcome to our podcast, the award winning science and 22 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,319 Speaker 1: physics podcast called Daniel and Jorge Explained the Universe. Remind 23 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: me which award we won. We won the award for 24 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: having no awards yet, the award for best podcast that 25 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: features only two sidekicks. We're sidekicking it here on our podcast. 26 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:44,960 Speaker 1: But yeah, it's our podcast about physics and science and 27 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: astronomy and the universe and everything in between. Our podcast 28 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: in which we share with you the gorgeous, amazing mysteries 29 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: of the universe. We take you on a mental tour 30 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: to all the crazy stuff that's out there, that's in here, 31 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: the tiny stuff, the huge stuff, and we explain it 32 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,040 Speaker 1: all to you in a way that we hope also 33 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: makes you chuckle, yeah, because you know, we hope to 34 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: open up your mind to the amazing and incredible things 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 1: that are happening right now and the far reaches of 36 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,240 Speaker 1: the universe and the far corners of the Solar System. 37 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: But we also kind of want to open your eyes 38 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: to see you all of the amazing signs that's happening 39 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,239 Speaker 1: all around you right now. Because one of the most 40 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: amazing things about physics is that the same laws of 41 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: physics operate on black holes and nebula and neutron stars 42 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: and you and me and everything in our world. This 43 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: is one of the most earth shattering revelations of physics 44 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,360 Speaker 1: in the last few hundred years, that the physics of 45 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: the cosmos and the physics of the every day are 46 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: the same physics, which means that we can discover the 47 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: secrets of the universe just by doing experiments in our laboratory. Yeah, 48 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,120 Speaker 1: it's all the same being trapped in a black hole 49 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: or being trapped in your apartment for an indefinite amount 50 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: of time. It's all the same. You can do physics anywhere. 51 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: They're crushing in different ways. But it also means that 52 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: we can look around us and find amazing crazy stuff 53 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: that reveals the grits of the universe. Like quantum mechanics 54 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: was not discovered inside a black hole. It was found 55 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: just by shooting photons that weird kinds of metal. And 56 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: so today we'll be talking about an invention. Dad, I 57 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,239 Speaker 1: would argue maybe is one of the most commonplace or 58 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:18,359 Speaker 1: most prevalent technologies out there in human technology human kind. Right, 59 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: are you talking about the wheel fire the hoverboard, and 60 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 1: I was hoping for the hoverboard. Hasn't had that happened yet, Daniel, No, 61 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,239 Speaker 1: it is not. But I'm sure somebody accidentally ordered a 62 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:31,800 Speaker 1: hoverboard on Amazon and got something else. You know. Well, 63 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: it's a technology that I think basically almost every human 64 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: looks at on a daily basis, maybe even an hourly basis. 65 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: Now you have me at the edge of my seat. 66 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: What are we talking about today? What do you mean? 67 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,040 Speaker 1: I thought you knew what we were talking about today. 68 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: I'm the sidekick here. Remember you're in charge. Oh I see, 69 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: I see. Well, it's in our phones, you know, everyone 70 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: looks at their phone every couple of minutes. It's on 71 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: our computer screens and our televisions, which I'm sure a 72 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: lot of people are watching a lot of these days. 73 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: So it illuminates everything you're talking about. My sheer genius, right, 74 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: my brilliance about Netflix. I'm just kidding. Well, it's I 75 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,160 Speaker 1: just figured out it's on the title of our podcast. 76 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: So I'm guessing that people will already know by the 77 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: time they click that's right. I hope they haven't been misled. 78 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 1: That's right. We'll lead him to the light. That's right, 79 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: So to have the podcast, we'll be talking about l 80 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: E d S. How do elds work, what are the 81 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: physics of it? And why did somebody win a Nobel 82 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,680 Speaker 1: Prize for inventing a particular color of it? That's right, 83 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: We have physics Nobel Prizes for things like understanding quantum 84 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: mechanics and figuring out what the basic particles are, or 85 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: for you know, an observation of gravitational ways. Things really 86 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 1: reveal the fundamental fabric and nature of the universe. And 87 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: then we have Nobel Prizes for the invention of the 88 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: blue led blue eled, not the red led. That one 89 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: did not win. It was blued, Nobel's favorite color. Not 90 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,240 Speaker 1: at all, not at all. And so today we wanted 91 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: to dive into, like what are the physics of L 92 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: E d S. Is it's really worth a Nobel Prize? 93 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: What are the sort of obstacles that they had to 94 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,279 Speaker 1: leap over in order to make this thing work? And 95 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: what physics did they have to solve along the way. 96 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: What does it reveal about the nature of our universe 97 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,600 Speaker 1: that we can now make L d's globe blues? So 98 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 1: what do you think about my idea that it's maybe 99 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: one of the most prevailing technologies out there, you mean 100 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,720 Speaker 1: lights in general, or LED specifically, L E D specifically, 101 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: you know, because they're they're basically in every phone, and 102 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: there's billions of phones out there, and it's on every 103 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 1: computer screen now in TV screen, most of the TV 104 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:35,479 Speaker 1: screens have them. I would say it's up there along 105 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,480 Speaker 1: with a concrete and toilet paper as the current most 106 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: important technology. Yeah. You know, people have been stockpiling L 107 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: e d s ever since the coronavirus came out, you know, 108 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 1: just in case, yeah, you know, just in case we 109 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: run out of lights. I think you're right. Just had 110 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: a really big impact on everyday life. You see them 111 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: in screens, you see them in lights, you see them 112 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: on trucks, you see them everywhere now. Yeah. Yeah, So 113 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: it's a pretty important technology that's all around us, that 114 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:02,839 Speaker 1: is hitting our eyeballs all of the time. But as usually, 115 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:04,800 Speaker 1: we were wondering how many people out there know how 116 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 1: L e d s work or what it even stands for. 117 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: L E ED. So, as usual, Daniel went out into 118 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: the world and ask people if they do how an 119 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,600 Speaker 1: LED works. That's right, and these questions actually pre date 120 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: the coronavirus pandemic and so these are historical records of 121 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,880 Speaker 1: in person interviews back when that was still possible. Really, Oh, 122 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: this is an actual on the street. These are from 123 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:28,720 Speaker 1: the archive. We haven't had a chance to pull this 124 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,040 Speaker 1: episode out yet. I see. Do you think people's opinions 125 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: about l E d S would have changed by now? 126 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: While people are spending more time inside under the life 127 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:39,840 Speaker 1: of a deeper relationship with L E d S. Now, 128 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: maybe hypnotizes a little bit more since Yeah, well you know, 129 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: people are looking at more screens and so they have 130 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:47,960 Speaker 1: hopefully more affection for L D. Yeah. So think about 131 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: it for a second. If someone asked you how an 132 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:52,359 Speaker 1: LED works, would you know what to answer. Here's what 133 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 1: people had to say. No, but I just know it's 134 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: a better life. Part of me really wants you to 135 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: say electricity, but uh, isn't it No, that's fluorescence. Remind 136 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: I was gonna say gas, but let's just fluorescence light. Yeah, 137 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: I'm going to assume it's due to a residents frequency 138 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: within within the LED. I'm not sure. Essentially, it's just 139 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: a PM junction. Um one side has holes in side 140 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: has an accessible electrons, especially transitions in the state of 141 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: the PM junction. Really slight. So yeah, oh shoot, um, honestly, 142 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: I don't know. I literally don't know. Kind of yeah, yeah, 143 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: I know, um excited Adams, but I forgot like which 144 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: Adam like maybe alien They excited to higher state energy 145 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: state and wave falls generated energy. But yeah, that's kind 146 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: of isn't that. Florescen no similar, but fluorescence like much 147 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: weaker energy. So what do you think of these responses? 148 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,080 Speaker 1: Pretty good? I feel like they fall in live with 149 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: how I think about l d S, which is that 150 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: I don't know much about him. Yeah, I was a 151 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: little surprised. Some people had no idea. Some people thought 152 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: they understood it, but we're actually talking about a completely 153 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 1: different type of light generation that's fluorescence. People got them 154 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: confused with fluorescent, Like yeah, yeah, In turns out there's 155 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: lots of different ways to make light. You know, you 156 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: incandescent light, we have fluorescent lights, and then we have 157 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: led lights, and they all operate on really different physical principles. Yeah, 158 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: because maybe maybe people have got them confused, because I 159 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 1: feel like fluorescent lights, I know, they've been around for 160 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: a long time, you know, like neon signs and things 161 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: like that, and fluorescent bulbs, but they sort of made 162 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: it into people's homes more recently, but then right away 163 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,719 Speaker 1: elid sort of came about and then totally replaced them. Yeah, well, 164 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: fluorescent lights have been around for quite a long time, 165 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: but yeah, they didn't make it into people's homes until 166 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,839 Speaker 1: recently with the compact fluorescence. But there's actually sort of 167 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,520 Speaker 1: a fascinating legal drama aout florescent lights because they were 168 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: first developed pretty soon after incandescent lights, but then General 169 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,439 Speaker 1: Electric bought up all the patents and prevented anybody from 170 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,240 Speaker 1: developing them or using them, and basically kept fluorescent lights 171 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: out of the market for decades just because they also 172 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: owned the patents for incandescent lights. So it's sort of 173 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,800 Speaker 1: a legal political drama that we probably won't even get 174 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: into today. They're like fluorescence that that works with gas, 175 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: it's not electric. It's on brand with us, so we'll 176 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: just sit in it. Yeah, they just sort of bought 177 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,559 Speaker 1: it up and sat on it as a dangerous technology 178 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:32,719 Speaker 1: that they thought would sort of endanger their business. Well, 179 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:36,560 Speaker 1: let's get into how LEDs work, but first let's maybe 180 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,560 Speaker 1: talk about how some of the other lights that people 181 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: are familiar with work. So take us back, Daniel, how 182 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: does it torch work. You know, that's a really awesome 183 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,800 Speaker 1: question actually, like what is fire and how does it work? 184 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: And I want to do a whole podcast episode, Um, 185 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: what is fire and what is the thing you're seeing 186 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: that's glowing? And remember it's it's gonna be totally lit. 187 00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:58,640 Speaker 1: M We're gonna brighten your life with that one. And 188 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: remember on our live streams, somebody asked about that whether 189 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: fire can have a shadow, which is a totally awesome question. 190 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: But I think the first light that we should talk 191 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: about is incandescent lights. And these are the ones that 192 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 1: Edison invented, you know, the ones that people have had 193 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: in their homes until very recently. It has a little 194 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: filament in it that glows and eventually it breaks, right. Yeah, 195 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:20,559 Speaker 1: basically what people think of when they think of a 196 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: light bulb, like a round thing with a little wire 197 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 1: through the middle. Yeah, that's your classic light bulb. And 198 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: all the technologies that we're gonna talk about today operate 199 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:32,719 Speaker 1: under the same essential goal, which is turned electricity into photons. 200 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:34,680 Speaker 1: Do you think when Edison had the idea for the 201 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:36,559 Speaker 1: light bulb, do you think he had a light bulb 202 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 1: over his head? Like, was that the only time in 203 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: history when like somebody was actually thinking of a light bulb, 204 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,400 Speaker 1: when they had an idea. Yeah, that's where it comes from, right, 205 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: that was the first great idea, That was the first 206 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: idea worthy of having a light bulb over your head. Technically, 207 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, And so the idea for incandescent lights 208 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:58,120 Speaker 1: is to find some material where you can deposit the 209 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 1: energy from your electrons and it will give off light. 210 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: All right, So every one of these strategies you want 211 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: to turn fast moving electrons into shooting off photon photons 212 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: to the surrounding areas. Okay, so how do incandescent lights work? 213 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 1: How do light bulbs work? Regularly? The amazing thing about 214 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: light bulbs that people probably don't understand is that they 215 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:21,199 Speaker 1: glow even when they're off. What. Yeah, everything glows. It's 216 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:25,400 Speaker 1: called black body radiation. Everything in the universe gives off photons, 217 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:28,520 Speaker 1: gives off radiation, even if it's totally black, even if 218 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:32,280 Speaker 1: it's a black hole, daddy. Well, technically, yes, black holes 219 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: do give up a radiation all right, Yeah, that's true. Correct, 220 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: Even black holes have a temperature. Right, Everything in the 221 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 1: universe that's not an absolute zero glows at some spectrum. Now, 222 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: usually you don't see it because it's invisible. It glows 223 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: very very very long wavelengths, very low frequencies, and so 224 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: you don't see it. So but this is why, for example, 225 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: you know infrared telescopes like the James web Space telescope 226 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,120 Speaker 1: that looks for infrared light. It sees a lot out 227 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:01,920 Speaker 1: of noise that you don't even see and have to 228 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,720 Speaker 1: keep it cold a like negative fifty degrees or whatever. 229 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,640 Speaker 1: So everything in the universe is already glow, but it's 230 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: not so useful, right, What you want is something that 231 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: glows with light that you can see a lot. Right. Oh, 232 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: I see black body radiation is in the infrared. It's 233 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 1: much lower than the infrared. Yet most black body radiation, 234 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: like the cosmic Marcrowave background radiation, is black body radiation 235 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,679 Speaker 1: from that initial plasma of the universe. And is it 236 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,320 Speaker 1: like you know, three degrees kelvin. It's a very very 237 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:32,280 Speaker 1: long wavelength. But what about something that's at zero degreek kelvin, 238 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 1: like absolute zero? Would that still glow? You know, something 239 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,560 Speaker 1: that absolute zero can't glow. But there is nothing in 240 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: the universe at absolute zero. So if you're like at 241 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:45,440 Speaker 1: point oh one degrees kelvin, from absolute zero, you would 242 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 1: be glowing a little bit exactly. And that's why the 243 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: black hole stuff is actually quite fascinating because when Stephen 244 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,679 Speaker 1: Hawking developed his ideas of black holes having a temperature, 245 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: that automatically suggests that black holes should radiate, because like 246 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: everything else that has a temperature, should radiat And that's 247 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,439 Speaker 1: why Hawkings results are sort of black hole thermo dynamics, 248 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,760 Speaker 1: because he's thinking about the temperature of black holes and 249 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: how that connects to how they radiate. All right, so 250 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: everything glows into infrared, So how do we get things 251 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: to glow in the in the visible light the white 252 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: light spectrum. Yes, so the spectrum in which you glow 253 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: depends on your temperature. So really cold stuff glows in 254 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: the infrared. If you heat something up, then its emissions 255 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: move into the visible spectrum. So you want to make 256 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: your filament glow in the visible light instead of in 257 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: the infrared light. Than what you do is you make 258 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: it hot, hotter and hotter. It turns the light from 259 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,040 Speaker 1: it not just glows more, but it changes color. It 260 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: changes color. And that's why for example, you heat up 261 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:39,959 Speaker 1: metal right and you see it glows blue, it glows red, 262 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: It glows white, for example, and the temperature of the 263 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: metal determines the frequency at which it's glowing, right, Like 264 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,679 Speaker 1: white hot and red hot are different temperatures of metal R. 265 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 1: And so this is a basic principle. And what's going 266 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:54,160 Speaker 1: on in the physics sense, like what's going on with 267 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: the electrons on the atoms, why is it changing color? 268 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: And how is it giving off the light. So it's 269 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:01,439 Speaker 1: always a good idea to try to think about stuff microscopically. 270 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:03,599 Speaker 1: And that's not just because I'm a particle physicist that 271 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,079 Speaker 1: I think we should always be thinking about the tiny stuff. 272 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: I think it really does lead to some inside And 273 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 1: so what's happening microscopically when you heat something up is 274 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:15,160 Speaker 1: that the electrons inside of the particles inside it have 275 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: more ways to move. They're wiggling more, they're bouncing more. 276 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: So there's just a lot more energy there. Now. The 277 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: way something glows is when something moves from a higher 278 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: energy level to a lower energy level. I mean, like 279 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: the atoms in a decay or sort of degrade a 280 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 1: little bit or chill out. And when they do that, 281 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 1: they admit a hotel. Yeah, they're excited. They have some 282 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 1: energy stored in them, and that energy comes from you know, 283 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: whatever you did to heat up this material. Right, Heat 284 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 1: means internal energy stored in the motion of these objects, 285 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: and we had a whole podcast about what temperature means 286 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: and it turns out to be very confusing and amazing, 287 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 1: like everything else in the universe. But the way to 288 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: think about microscopically is that these atoms are excited. Either 289 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,360 Speaker 1: the electrons that are whizzing around them have gone up 290 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:00,960 Speaker 1: one ladder in the energy level, or two ladders or 291 00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: three ladders, or maybe they're vibrating in new ways or 292 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,320 Speaker 1: rotating in new ways. These are all ways that they 293 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: can store energy. The electrons are that are the atoms. 294 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,120 Speaker 1: The electrons can move up energy levels, but the atoms 295 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: also they can vibrate. Remember a lot of these are 296 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: in bonds, right. Metals are not just free floating gases. 297 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: These lattices of things tied together and they're like you 298 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,680 Speaker 1: can imagine little springs between them, and then you can 299 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,280 Speaker 1: imagine those things vibrating and vibrating in different ways. They 300 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: have different modes, all right. So they're excited and so 301 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: they they're giving off energy and then they relax. Because 302 00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: things in the universe don't like to be excited. They 303 00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: like to spread out their energy, and that's why things 304 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: emit energy because entropy, right, energy in the universe tends 305 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: to diffuse, and so if you have it concentrated in 306 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,520 Speaker 1: one little mode, like one little electron has jumped up 307 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 1: three energy levels, it will decay. You'll give that energy off. 308 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: And the way it does that is by shooting off 309 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:51,440 Speaker 1: a photon. And so the more you heat up something up, 310 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,240 Speaker 1: the more you make all the atoms more excited, the 311 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: more you know photons that are going to come off 312 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: of this excitement exactly, and then the higher the energy 313 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:02,320 Speaker 1: of those gaps, So an electron can get pushed up 314 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: several levels up that ladder, and then it can jump 315 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,080 Speaker 1: down five levels, and so then the photon has more energy, 316 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: which corresponds to a higher frequency. So that's how, for example, 317 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: hot objects can emit in the visible spectrum instead of 318 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,120 Speaker 1: just at the very very low energy levels. So the 319 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: light that they emit has more energy, which is what 320 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: higher frequency means, which is what visible light means, or 321 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: invisible light has more energy per photon than infrared light. 322 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: But I think it also has to be certain kinds 323 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,080 Speaker 1: of materials, right, like when I boil water, it doesn't 324 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:36,280 Speaker 1: start to blow. I mean it starts to glow in 325 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: the infrared, but not in the visible light spectrum. That's 326 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:41,000 Speaker 1: an awesome question. How hot would you have to make 327 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: water in order to make it glow? I don't think 328 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: answer to that. That's a cool question. But you're right, Yeah, 329 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 1: everything glows at some level, but not everything can be 330 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 1: easily made to glow in the visible because I guess 331 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: it will melt or burn or boil, yeah, exactly, something 332 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: else will happened to it turn into vapor. And so 333 00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: that that's how light bulbs work. It's that they have 334 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,280 Speaker 1: a little thin wire of metal that you heat up 335 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: and then that gives us the light. That's right. And 336 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,639 Speaker 1: the way you heat it up is that you send 337 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,359 Speaker 1: current through it, right, You send electricity through it. And 338 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,600 Speaker 1: most of these metals are resistors, meaning that they are 339 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,680 Speaker 1: not perfect conductors. So the electrons as they're trying to 340 00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,880 Speaker 1: go through the metal are getting bounced into atoms, right, 341 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: and those atoms are stealing their energy. And this is 342 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: what heats up something when electricity passes through it. Like 343 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 1: you know that block that you used to charge your laptop. 344 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:29,600 Speaker 1: Have you've been charging it for a while, it heats up, right, 345 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:34,080 Speaker 1: that's using. That's inefficient. It's using. It's stealing the electricity 346 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: from those electrons in order to heat up that block. 347 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: This is how you heat up the filament of tungsten. 348 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: As you pass all this electricity through it, that heats 349 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:44,960 Speaker 1: it up and that makes it glow. Yeah, that's a 350 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 1: little wire inside of the traditional light bulb and white tungsten. 351 00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: Is it a special kind of metal? They can heat 352 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: up a lot without melting. Yeah, tungsten just sort of 353 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:54,880 Speaker 1: lasts a long time. But these things are really very 354 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,280 Speaker 1: very inefficient. Like it's not a very direct way to 355 00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:01,679 Speaker 1: get energy into photons. Right, You're just heating this thing 356 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: up and it's glowing somewhat in the visible but not 357 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: always invisible, and a lot of the energy is just lost. 358 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: A lot of the energy goes into the infrared, which 359 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: is useless to us. Yeah, it just goes into making 360 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: this thing hot, right, and not all the heat gets 361 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:20,159 Speaker 1: turned into visible light, and so only something like five 362 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: of the energy that you put into a light bulb 363 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: gets turned into light. Superficient, not super efficient and also 364 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 1: kind of fragile, like you're baking this thing every single time, 365 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:31,639 Speaker 1: So it gets hot and then it gets cold, and 366 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,080 Speaker 1: gets hot and then it gets cold, and you know that, 367 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,680 Speaker 1: like that creates a lot of mechanical stress, which is 368 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,640 Speaker 1: why these filaments, which are already very very thin, don't 369 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,399 Speaker 1: last for that long. So your typical incandescent classic light 370 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: bulb only works for about a thousand hours. Well, they're 371 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: making a comeback, you know, and like hip her restaurants 372 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:51,679 Speaker 1: and stuff, everyone's going for the incandescent bulbs. Yeah. Well, 373 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,119 Speaker 1: the positive thing about incandescent bulbs is to have a 374 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,879 Speaker 1: very nice glow, Like it feels like sort of a 375 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,919 Speaker 1: natural light. You know that the process that produces this 376 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 1: light gives you a spread, right, not just one color. 377 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: It's not like a laser beam in your eye. It's 378 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,959 Speaker 1: a nice spread of warm white light. And so a 379 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:09,920 Speaker 1: lot of people like that. It's sort of more similar 380 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,360 Speaker 1: to sunlight than some of the other technologies we're gonna 381 00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: talk about, saying, all right, let's get into some of 382 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 1: these other technologies like l d s, like fluorescent light bulbs, 383 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:33,520 Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. All right, there, 384 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,359 Speaker 1: we're talking about how LEDs work and specifically how lights 385 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:39,080 Speaker 1: work in general, and so we're going down the list 386 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,560 Speaker 1: of technologies, and so we talked about incandescent bulbs, which 387 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: I'm guessing maybe my kids will never have to know 388 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,080 Speaker 1: how they work technically because everything is sort of moved on. 389 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,240 Speaker 1: But the next one in the history of light is 390 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: the fluorescent light bulb. So you were saying these were 391 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,119 Speaker 1: invented out around the same time as the incandescent light bulb, 392 00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 1: but they worked on a totally different physics. Yeah, the 393 00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:01,719 Speaker 1: physics is different. The idea here is to use excited gas, 394 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 1: and you know, we talked about in the late eighteen 395 00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: hundreds of people were making vacuum tubes and you know, 396 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: passing currents through it and seeing glows, and that's actually 397 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,119 Speaker 1: one of the things that lead to the discovery of 398 00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:15,919 Speaker 1: the electron, right J. J. Thompson discovered the electron by 399 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:18,800 Speaker 1: playing with these sort of evacuated tubes and seeing how 400 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:21,640 Speaker 1: the gas inside them glows. But then people were playing 401 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:23,960 Speaker 1: with other kinds of things and discovered that if you 402 00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:27,159 Speaker 1: pass a current through a tube that has gas in it, 403 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 1: you can make the gas glow. And the physics here 404 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:33,920 Speaker 1: is pretty similar to the physics of incandescent lights, except 405 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:36,480 Speaker 1: that you're making a gas glow. Instead of making like 406 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: a piece of metal glow, I see, instead of a 407 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: little wire, it's like a tube of gas and you 408 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,840 Speaker 1: can excite the electrons in that gas. They go up 409 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: an energy level and then they jump back down and 410 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:49,959 Speaker 1: they give off a photon. And I think last time 411 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,920 Speaker 1: we talked about these, it was it's sort of related 412 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: to lightning the way kind of it's it's almost like 413 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: you're creating a little bit of lightning in a bottle. Yeah, 414 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:58,320 Speaker 1: it's lightning in a bottle, and it's a little bit 415 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,440 Speaker 1: of plasma, right. You In order to pass electricity through 416 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:03,919 Speaker 1: a gas, you have to turn it into ions. You 417 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 1: have to tear apart the positive and the negative that 418 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: usually the gas is made out of and make an 419 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,600 Speaker 1: ion channel. And you know this sounds like Star Trek 420 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 1: or whatever, but you're literally making a tube of electrically 421 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: charged gas. It's like a gaseous wire sort of cool. 422 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:22,679 Speaker 1: It's like a gas that conducts electricity, right, and so 423 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,639 Speaker 1: you're tearing it apart just by creating this electric field 424 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,119 Speaker 1: from one side to the other and then passing that 425 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:30,760 Speaker 1: energy through and it excites the gas. It makes the 426 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,880 Speaker 1: gas like the atoms of the gas inside are now 427 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: giving off there like absorbing these electrons that are going through, 428 00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: and then they give him off as photon. That's right. 429 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: The microphysics of what's happening is that these electrons, the 430 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,200 Speaker 1: current that's passing through will sometimes bump into an electron 431 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,240 Speaker 1: in the gas atom and bump it up a few 432 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,639 Speaker 1: energy levels and then it will fall back down. And 433 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:52,959 Speaker 1: when it does that, it gives off a photon. So 434 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: you're turning the kinetic energy of some initial electron into 435 00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: an excited state of the atomic electron, which then it's 436 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,400 Speaker 1: a photon. So that's how you get an energy from 437 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: the electron into a photon. And it's kind of a 438 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:08,119 Speaker 1: binary process, right, Like it's hard to dim a fluorescent 439 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,120 Speaker 1: light bulb, right, Like a little regular ballb you can 440 00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: do that, but a fluorescent you know, it's either on 441 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,520 Speaker 1: and offer and if it's sort of on the edge, 442 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,639 Speaker 1: you'll blink and kind of give you ice cream. That's right. 443 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 1: Because you need to create this plasma, you need to 444 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,199 Speaker 1: like ramp it up to a high enough voltage so 445 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: that you can create this ion channel and the whole 446 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 1: thing starts up. It's almost like starting up a little 447 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 1: fusion reactor. Inside suddenly it Fluorescent light bulbs are way cool. 448 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: They're lightning in a bottle and fusion bombs in a tube. Yeah, 449 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:36,920 Speaker 1: And the cool thing about them is that they're a 450 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:40,440 Speaker 1: lot more efficient doing this with gas. Like a mercury vapor, 451 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,840 Speaker 1: which is what's typically used, is something like twenty efficient 452 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 1: instead of like the five percent of your incandescent light bulb. 453 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: Where does the other scent efficiency go into heat as well? 454 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,879 Speaker 1: But they don't. They don't get as that that's exactly right. 455 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,520 Speaker 1: They don't get as hot, which is why they're more efficient. Right, 456 00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: some more the energy goes into creating light unless of 457 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,320 Speaker 1: it goes into like heating up the actual apparatus. So 458 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,440 Speaker 1: I think that all makes sense. One interesting facet which 459 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 1: I thought was cool was that the best thing to 460 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 1: use to make this light is mercury vapor because you 461 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,760 Speaker 1: don't need really high voltage and it's it's one of 462 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:15,800 Speaker 1: the most efficient ways to do it. But mercury is 463 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: like super poisonous, which is which makes it like it's 464 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,719 Speaker 1: a bad idea. Also, mercury gives off light, it's not visible, 465 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:27,360 Speaker 1: it gives off ultra violet light. Oh my goodness, poisons 466 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: you and gives you cancer at the same time. No, 467 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,120 Speaker 1: but that's why a lot of these fluorescent light bulbs 468 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: are not clear. They're frosted because the inner side of 469 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:40,440 Speaker 1: the glass contains another material which absorbs the ultra violet light, 470 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 1: uses some of the energy, and then gives off light 471 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,400 Speaker 1: in the visible So it's like a two step process. 472 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: The mercury vapor gives off UV photons which are then 473 00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: like stepped down into the visible light by some phosphorescent 474 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,600 Speaker 1: coating inside the bowl. It's a lot to it. Yeah, 475 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: it's a complicated thing, and you know, you have to 476 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,399 Speaker 1: create this plasma. And that's why florescent light bulbs until 477 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: recently not as commonly used in the home. They're more 478 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: expensive and more complicated, but there are a lot more 479 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:11,680 Speaker 1: efficient instead of five and they work for like ten 480 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 1: thousand hours instead of a thousand hours. And the light 481 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,160 Speaker 1: is kind of different too. It's it's wider, generally, it's wider. Yeah, 482 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,040 Speaker 1: and it kind of drives me bonkers, Like I don't 483 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: like the light from fluorescent light bulbs. It makes me 484 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,359 Speaker 1: feel like I'm you know, in a target or in 485 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:30,480 Speaker 1: like an alien autopsy examination room. Target and alien autopsy 486 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: that's where your mind goes it's worse worst case scenarios. Well, actually, 487 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: now that I think about it, I love to be 488 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,719 Speaker 1: in an alien autopsy or target for that, to be honest. 489 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 1: It's just that I don't know why the lighting in 490 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:46,879 Speaker 1: alien autopsy scenes in science fiction is always so terrible, 491 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,080 Speaker 1: Like why do they always use the horrible fluorescent flickering lights? 492 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: I see, Well, it's just so that the green comes 493 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: out of their skin more, you know, makes this there's 494 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 1: green skin seemed lovelier. I see. The aliens agent insisted 495 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: that they have it that way, is in their contract. Alright, well, 496 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: brown eminem's and fluorescent lights, that's right. And I didn't 497 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,240 Speaker 1: think that would make you laugh so much, Daniel. I 498 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: don't think aliens are so vain alright, alright, well hopefully not. 499 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's incandescent and fluorescent lights. And so 500 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,679 Speaker 1: let's get into the topic of the podcast, which is 501 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,320 Speaker 1: how LED lights work. And these are pretty pretty recent. 502 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:28,520 Speaker 1: I feel like in the last ten years they've become 503 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: more popular, and they're also sort of everywhere right there, 504 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: in phones, they're in TVs or pretty much every kind 505 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: of screen, even on people's watches now have L E 506 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,399 Speaker 1: D s and so first of all, Daniel, what is 507 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,159 Speaker 1: l ED stand for. It stands for light emitting diode. 508 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,560 Speaker 1: Light emitting is obvious, right, giving off light and diode 509 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,960 Speaker 1: is this little physical thing that was invented in the 510 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,360 Speaker 1: fifties and sixties that's made out of semiconductors. And that's 511 00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: really the core idea here is that instead of using 512 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,920 Speaker 1: a hot little tube of metal or a hot tube 513 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:02,880 Speaker 1: of gas, let's see if we can build this thing 514 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 1: out of semiconductors. And semiconductors are what computer chips are 515 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:08,880 Speaker 1: made out of, right, I mean, that's what computers are 516 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:11,560 Speaker 1: made out of. So this is kind of like they 517 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,680 Speaker 1: adapted that technology or they figured out they can also 518 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 1: use it to midlight, they can also use to emdlight. 519 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: And you're write, semiconductors are incredible also the basis of transistors, 520 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: which is how we build computer chips. One of the 521 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,120 Speaker 1: cool things about semiconductors is that we can print them 522 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,399 Speaker 1: really Finally, we can construct super tiny circuits that have 523 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,959 Speaker 1: really specific semiconductors using lithography, and that's how we make 524 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 1: computer chips so small, and we can make l ED 525 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: s really small. But first maybe we should talk about 526 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,480 Speaker 1: like what a semiconductor is like, it's not somebody who's 527 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: like driving a semi for example, someone who's dead driving 528 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,920 Speaker 1: with one eye closed, or conducting an orchestra, but only 529 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,919 Speaker 1: half the time, yeah, looking at their phone. And so 530 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: to understand semiconductor you have to understand where it falls 531 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,720 Speaker 1: sort of between other objects like an insulator and a conductor. 532 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 1: It's basically like a conductor that you can control right, 533 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 1: like it's a resistor, but you can also shut it 534 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: off if you give it a different sign sort of. Yeah, 535 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,199 Speaker 1: I think if it's sort of like a combination between 536 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:12,400 Speaker 1: an insulator and a conductor, because in an insulator, electrons 537 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:15,400 Speaker 1: cannot jump between atoms, like one atom has its electrons 538 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,679 Speaker 1: and the other one has its electrons, and electrons just 539 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: stay in their atom. They have a little localized the 540 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,600 Speaker 1: neighborhood that they hang out in. But in a conductor, 541 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,119 Speaker 1: the electrons flow freely, like they don't necessarily have an assignment. 542 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: They don't have like a home address. They just sort 543 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:31,719 Speaker 1: of like move around between atoms. It doesn't take much 544 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,080 Speaker 1: energy to go from one atom to the next. There's 545 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,080 Speaker 1: no barrier there. It insulates, you can't conduct electricity. Yeah, 546 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,240 Speaker 1: so insulators electrons can't jump between atoms, and a conductor, 547 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,879 Speaker 1: electrons just flow very easily between atoms. Now in the 548 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 1: semiconductor has both, right, it has there's a flow zone 549 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,520 Speaker 1: and a no flow zone. So if you have enough energy, 550 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,720 Speaker 1: then you can get up into this conduction band where 551 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 1: you can like float around between the atoms. So high 552 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:01,640 Speaker 1: energy electrons can jump between them, but low energy electrons 553 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:03,959 Speaker 1: are sort of stuck in their atom. So there's like 554 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 1: the cool kids that are running all over the neighborhood 555 00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 1: and then the ones where their parents tell them they 556 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:09,800 Speaker 1: have to stay home. They're all mixed together. Yeah, and 557 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,439 Speaker 1: there's two different kinds and so based on how much 558 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: energy you have, and so that's what we call this 559 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,240 Speaker 1: band gap. There's this energy gap. If you're above a 560 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,280 Speaker 1: certain energy that you can move around and below that 561 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,760 Speaker 1: you can't move around. And so that's what a semiconductor is. 562 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,920 Speaker 1: And it's fascinating because it has this band gap. And 563 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:27,800 Speaker 1: as you said, if you excite the electrons, you can 564 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,720 Speaker 1: turn into a conductor. And but some of the electrons 565 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: they're low enough energy then they're an insulator. So you 566 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,359 Speaker 1: get this sort of fine grain control about the electrical flow, 567 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: which is what makes it good for building circuits and 568 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. But it's it's not a question 569 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,200 Speaker 1: of the energy of the electrons, right, It's more of 570 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:45,400 Speaker 1: a question of the kind of the energy of the 571 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 1: medium of the material. Yeah, the material determines sort of 572 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:52,640 Speaker 1: this structure, right. Different kinds of semiconductors have different size 573 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: band gaps, but that band gap is the energy of 574 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,560 Speaker 1: the electrons that we're talking about. And you can build 575 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 1: all sorts of different kinds of semiconductors. And you can 576 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: build semiconductors based on like what material you use, like 577 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: the gallium, is it, silicon, is it some combination of 578 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 1: these two. You can build semiconductors that have a bunch 579 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,760 Speaker 1: of extra electrons in them, so that's called P type, 580 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,880 Speaker 1: like there's a bunch of extra electrons floating around. Or 581 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,320 Speaker 1: there's semiconductors that are called N types that have like 582 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: empty holes where electrons should go. Yeah, so they're both semiconductors, 583 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: and they're both about Usually mean add a silicon, right, 584 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,120 Speaker 1: with some sort of metal kind of infused in it. Yeah, 585 00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,240 Speaker 1: And so you often start with silicon and then you 586 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,080 Speaker 1: add little bits of other stuff to make different kinds 587 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: and a diode is just an N type semiconductor right 588 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,000 Speaker 1: next to a P type semiconductor. And what this means 589 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 1: it's very simple. It just means the electricity can flow 590 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,000 Speaker 1: in one direction, and that's what a diode does. So 591 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 1: the P type has a bunch of electrons and the 592 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: N type has a bunch of holes for those electrons 593 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: to fall into. So the P type one has electrons 594 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 1: floating above this band gap that can move around, etcetera, cetera. 595 00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,280 Speaker 1: When you put a current over, they just fall into 596 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:03,760 Speaker 1: the holes, and electrons jumping from high energy states to 597 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 1: low energy states is how you emit energy. So when 598 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: they do that, they release photons. So a diode is 599 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,000 Speaker 1: just P type and N type stuck together. And a 600 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,120 Speaker 1: light emitting diode is one where when the electrons fall 601 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:19,480 Speaker 1: in they emit visible light. And it has to be 602 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: a special kind of material or is it still just 603 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:24,719 Speaker 1: silicon with some kind of metal in it. It has 604 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:26,520 Speaker 1: to be a special kind of material to get the 605 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: right color light. And so that's really the key, that's 606 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: the core physics for why blue L E d s 607 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: were so fascinating. The first LEDs people invented, this gap 608 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,600 Speaker 1: was kind of small sort of hard to make it work. 609 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: And so when they fell from P type to N type, 610 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,560 Speaker 1: they didn't have that much energy and they emitted mostly 611 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,000 Speaker 1: in the infrared. And that for example, the LED that's 612 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,240 Speaker 1: in your remote control, the when that controls your TV, 613 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,720 Speaker 1: you don't see light coming out of the top of 614 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: the remote control because it comes out in a wavelength 615 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: you can't see it comes out of infrared light to 616 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,479 Speaker 1: talk to your TV. But there's an infrared LED at 617 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,560 Speaker 1: the top of your remote control. And those are the 618 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:02,760 Speaker 1: first ones that are invented. Is actually back in the 619 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,479 Speaker 1: sixties that they first came out with infrared LEDs, and 620 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,160 Speaker 1: then the challenge was coming up with different kinds of 621 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: material to negotiate this like P type N type difference. 622 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,640 Speaker 1: So you've got a larger gap so you have more 623 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,520 Speaker 1: energy when they fell, so you have more energy and 624 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: the photons so they could be visible light. Uh So 625 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:23,880 Speaker 1: it's all about the difference between the P and the 626 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: N types of materials. Okay, So it sort of depends 627 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 1: more on the N type and the on the size 628 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,600 Speaker 1: of the hole. Now the hole is just a hole 629 00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:33,400 Speaker 1: for an electron. It depends on the gap between the 630 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: P type and the ND type. So you're right, it 631 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,120 Speaker 1: depends on the type of material and the size of 632 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:39,880 Speaker 1: this gap. And you're putting this P type of this 633 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 1: N type next to each other, and it's basically how 634 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,680 Speaker 1: far they fall, Like, are they just stepping down from 635 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: the curb and they go oop and they just give 636 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: off a little bit of light or they jumping down 637 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:50,960 Speaker 1: Niagara falls and screaming all the way down and giving 638 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,280 Speaker 1: off a lot of energy. Oh, I see the electrons 639 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: go from the P type to the N type. They jump, Yeah, yeah, 640 00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:59,240 Speaker 1: they jump where they fall, you know, depending on whether 641 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,920 Speaker 1: you believe the electro is gonna make decisions. Man, they're 642 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,160 Speaker 1: pushed or pull more they're more like pulled, right, Yeah, 643 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:08,600 Speaker 1: they're more like pulled. And so basically an led is 644 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: a bunch of electrons screaming. So make time you look 645 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 1: at your phone. Your phone is screaming, screaming photons at 646 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,080 Speaker 1: you every time. Yeah, it's not just your brain that's 647 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: screaming from your Twitter feed. And the thing that's amazing 648 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,320 Speaker 1: about this is that it's solid state, right, Nothing is 649 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: moving here. You don't have gas that's bouncing around, you 650 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: don't have metal that's heating up and cooling down. It's 651 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,640 Speaker 1: just fixed and it's just like electrical circuit, and that 652 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 1: makes it last for a very very long time. It 653 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: lasts for like a hundred thousand hours before it finally breaks. 654 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: It like trust can scream for as long as you need. 655 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: That's what you're saying. That's right. Unfortunately, the life span 656 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,200 Speaker 1: of electron it's very very long. It's doomed to a 657 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: long life of falling down this gap. I guess my 658 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:54,400 Speaker 1: question is what keeps the light going? Like, once it 659 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 1: falls into the hole, wouldn't it just stay in the hole? Yeah, 660 00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: it does, wouldn't it fill up all the holes? Well, 661 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: you have a current it and so you're pulling these 662 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:03,160 Speaker 1: electrons out of the end type. So the whole thing 663 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: is connected to a current. Imagine like a battery powering 664 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: the led. It's sending fresh electrons into the p type 665 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: and pulling the electrons out of the end type. So 666 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:14,480 Speaker 1: the whole thing is a circuit. It is like a waterfall. 667 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: It's like a continual waterfall exactly. It's just like a waterfall. 668 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:19,880 Speaker 1: You're pumping on one side and then they scream on 669 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: their way down. It's more like a roller coaster because 670 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:26,760 Speaker 1: of the screaming Yeah, that's right, because then they come 671 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,200 Speaker 1: back down and then the card gets pulled over and 672 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: then up the rap again and then down and then screen. 673 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,480 Speaker 1: Let's not think of it as electron suffering, but electrons 674 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:36,240 Speaker 1: is having a lot of fun, that's right. And you know, 675 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,360 Speaker 1: you might wonder why do people go on roller coasters 676 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: because they scream the whole time? Well, I guess they 677 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,040 Speaker 1: like to scream, and so we can imagine that also 678 00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: electrons are enjoying this ride. There's thrill seekers and they 679 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,440 Speaker 1: seem to be happy to do it because LEDs last 680 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:53,480 Speaker 1: for a hundred thousand hours and it's very very efficient. 681 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,680 Speaker 1: Most of the energy that you're sending into this circuit 682 00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: actually goes into emitting light. It's like more than fee 683 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,479 Speaker 1: percent of the energy. That's ten times, ten times more 684 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:07,440 Speaker 1: efficient than incandescent bulb. Yeah, ten times more efficient. And 685 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:10,879 Speaker 1: the challenge is in finding the right gaps you get 686 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,280 Speaker 1: the right energy level, so you get the right colors. 687 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:16,040 Speaker 1: And so the first thing was infra red, and then 688 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,680 Speaker 1: you know, infra red is the lowest frequency, the longest wavelength, 689 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:21,560 Speaker 1: and then they figured out ways to make them longer 690 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,200 Speaker 1: so they were visible and then longer, so you've got red, 691 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:29,680 Speaker 1: You've got green, and then the challenge was blue LEDs. Alright, 692 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,840 Speaker 1: let's get into the amazing discovery that was discovering blue 693 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,240 Speaker 1: LEDs and why I got the Nobel Prize. But first 694 00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:52,879 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, Daniel, somebody got 695 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,520 Speaker 1: a Nobel Prize for discovering the blue led. So what's 696 00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: so special about blue led? I like the way you 697 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,919 Speaker 1: make it sound like they discovered a blue l D Like, well, 698 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:02,840 Speaker 1: I was sweeping up my lab and I found this 699 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,440 Speaker 1: thing on the ground. Oh my god, it's a blue LED. Right, 700 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,359 Speaker 1: It's just what I was looking for, because that's how 701 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,000 Speaker 1: we discover particles, right, you know, like, oh my gosh, 702 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:12,960 Speaker 1: look I found a towel particle, and now I get 703 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,040 Speaker 1: a Nobel Prize. I didn't like design it or engineer 704 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:18,400 Speaker 1: it or an invented, right, it should be more like 705 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:22,879 Speaker 1: it as somebody designed inventive. Yeah, somebody invented the blue led, 706 00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,320 Speaker 1: which is sort of awesome and impressive. So we couldn't 707 00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: just take a white l ED and put a blue 708 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:29,160 Speaker 1: filter on it. Well, that's the thing. You can't make 709 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:32,319 Speaker 1: white l d s without blue. Right before we had 710 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: blue l e d s, we had green, and we 711 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: had read and so you couldn't make white l e 712 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:38,880 Speaker 1: d s. That's why blue l d s are so 713 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:42,600 Speaker 1: important because with blue you can make the combination you 714 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 1: need to make white. And nobody wants in their reading 715 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,640 Speaker 1: light a green light or a red light. You want 716 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:50,800 Speaker 1: a white l e ED And you couldn't make white 717 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,600 Speaker 1: without blue. You need the blue. You need the blue 718 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:55,239 Speaker 1: to make the need the blue to make the white. 719 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,760 Speaker 1: And that's why l ds have exploded in applications everywhere 720 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,680 Speaker 1: because now they can make essentially any color because we 721 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,279 Speaker 1: have the missing blue cool. So tell me what was 722 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:06,839 Speaker 1: so hard about it and what's the physics behind it? Yeah, 723 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:08,600 Speaker 1: and so it's sort of an interesting question, like it 724 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: really was an engineering puzzle, Like you just needed to 725 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,600 Speaker 1: get the right material. You needed to get the right 726 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,560 Speaker 1: material with the right thickness and configure it all correctly 727 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: to get blue. And it was tricky to get this 728 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,359 Speaker 1: gap to be extra extra large, large enough to make 729 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:24,880 Speaker 1: so that when the electrons go down that roller coaster 730 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,480 Speaker 1: they scream for long enough to give you a blue photon. 731 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:29,840 Speaker 1: And you know, it turns out to be something of 732 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,520 Speaker 1: a condensed matter and solid state engineering problem and a 733 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: couple of Japanese people figured it out. You need some 734 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:40,000 Speaker 1: mixture of gallium nitride with other silicon substrates and then 735 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,480 Speaker 1: you can get this blue led. But I guess why 736 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,200 Speaker 1: was it so hard? Like when you try to make 737 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,879 Speaker 1: electrons jump that much, it would burn out or they 738 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,280 Speaker 1: just wouldn't do it, or you know, they wouldn't scream 739 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 1: as much as you wanted to. What was the difficulty 740 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,080 Speaker 1: in getting this right? It's just in finding one that 741 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: would work. You know, most things just didn't have this 742 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: large enough gap, and so it's just a finding a 743 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,359 Speaker 1: material that had this gap and that also worked. Yeah, 744 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,200 Speaker 1: and that also works. I mean, you can make a gap, 745 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,920 Speaker 1: but it may not necessarily work to get the electrons 746 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,880 Speaker 1: to flow across it, And so we can't necessarily predict 747 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:12,640 Speaker 1: in advance whether something is going to work. So they 748 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:14,200 Speaker 1: sort of had just had to search through lots of 749 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,400 Speaker 1: different kinds of materials and try this and try this, 750 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,319 Speaker 1: and have inside and inspiration and also just some luck 751 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:21,719 Speaker 1: into making it work. And so that's why I think 752 00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:25,320 Speaker 1: it's interesting, like does this deserve a Physics Nobel Prize? 753 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 1: Like there's no new principle discovered here, There's no fundamental 754 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: revelation of the nature of the universe or space, time 755 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,560 Speaker 1: or history or whatever. It was an engineering step forward, 756 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: which a deep respect for the engineering step forward. But 757 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,720 Speaker 1: I think the reason it got the Physics Nobel Prize 758 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,759 Speaker 1: is because of the huge impact on society. Really, you 759 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:52,120 Speaker 1: guys look down on things that are useful. You're like, well, 760 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,560 Speaker 1: you know, I think the original Nobel Prize was supposed 761 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,960 Speaker 1: to be about things that shape society, and so I 762 00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,279 Speaker 1: think Alfred Nobel would probably be it. He pleased. But 763 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,320 Speaker 1: more recently a lot of these prizes have been awarded 764 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: for like deep but maybe impractical discoveries about the nature 765 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:12,320 Speaker 1: of neutrinos or gravitational waves. I see, that's right. Nobel 766 00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,800 Speaker 1: was an inventor, right, He wasn't a physicist, he was 767 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,160 Speaker 1: an engineering exactly. You guys have co opted our prize exactly. 768 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:21,239 Speaker 1: So in some sense this is like a return to 769 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:25,560 Speaker 1: Nobel's roots, right. It's recognizing something of great import to 770 00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,560 Speaker 1: society because it has had a huge impact. It was 771 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,640 Speaker 1: like the missing piece. There's nothing weird physically about blue. 772 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:34,840 Speaker 1: It's just sort of the highest frequency and therefore the 773 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,400 Speaker 1: last for us to put together. I said, so do 774 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:39,760 Speaker 1: you think somebody should have gotten a prize, a Nobel 775 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,839 Speaker 1: prize for discovering the Higgs boson, because the people who 776 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,480 Speaker 1: wanted wanted for coming up sort of with the Higgs boson, 777 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:47,440 Speaker 1: but the people who discovered it, it was mostly just 778 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: sort of engineering. Right. You just described my whole field 779 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: as mostly sort of just engineering, which is so many 780 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:55,320 Speaker 1: it fastening the angles because I think you meant that 781 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:59,040 Speaker 1: as a disc but you described as engineering. So I 782 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,480 Speaker 1: hold engineering that at the highest esteem. That was actually 783 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,480 Speaker 1: trying to pay you a compliment. You were trying to 784 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,600 Speaker 1: elevate our field by describing ange. I appreciate that it's 785 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:10,440 Speaker 1: aspiring to be useful. Well, I'm not even sure how 786 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,080 Speaker 1: useful it is to discover the Higgs boson. But I 787 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: think the great innovation there was definitely having the idea 788 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,319 Speaker 1: and finding it. I don't know how many big steps forward, 789 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,719 Speaker 1: and me it's a huge effort and technological achievement, But 790 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:27,000 Speaker 1: I don't know that we necessarily created anything new. We 791 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,680 Speaker 1: certainly didn't make anything as fascinating and impactful as the 792 00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,600 Speaker 1: Blue Led. We just sort of confirmed an idea that 793 00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,439 Speaker 1: it was in people's minds, so we revealed something about 794 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:38,520 Speaker 1: the nature of the universe, but something that sort of 795 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,319 Speaker 1: had been suspected to exist already. But okay, so back 796 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:44,560 Speaker 1: to the blue l d. That's important because now you 797 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:47,399 Speaker 1: have blue, and with red and green you can make 798 00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:49,319 Speaker 1: white lights. So you can make any kind of color 799 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:52,480 Speaker 1: now that you have blue lads. Yes, exactly, And so 800 00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:54,920 Speaker 1: these guys invented it in the nineties and then they 801 00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:57,080 Speaker 1: won the No About Prize for it a few years later. 802 00:39:57,640 --> 00:39:59,960 Speaker 1: That's how ladies work, and that's why there's important. So 803 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,080 Speaker 1: the people who discovered the red ladies and the green 804 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: ladies also get a price, or only the one who 805 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:09,600 Speaker 1: waited till the end and procrastinated to discover the missing 806 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 1: color get the prize. I feel like you have another 807 00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: horse in this race here, your pro procrastination. I built 808 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,080 Speaker 1: a whole career on it. Any Yeah, the lesson here 809 00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:21,319 Speaker 1: is weight and just sort of put the period at 810 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: the end of the sentence and you'll get the prize 811 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:26,440 Speaker 1: for everybody else's work. Yeah, there you go. But in 812 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,760 Speaker 1: a way, it's true, right, like the person who discovered 813 00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:30,280 Speaker 1: the red and the green one didn't get a prize, 814 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,080 Speaker 1: but somehow, like you know, completing the triangle to get 815 00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,879 Speaker 1: white light made a bigger splash. The person who puts 816 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,480 Speaker 1: the capstone on the top of the pyramid, right, is 817 00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:40,600 Speaker 1: the one that claims the prize, right, the one who 818 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:43,080 Speaker 1: discovers the mass particles the one who But yeah, so 819 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,680 Speaker 1: now we can make white light with LEDs that is 820 00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:50,320 Speaker 1: super efficient and also small, really small. Like maybe before 821 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:54,000 Speaker 1: you couldn't make incandescent bulbs small enough for you know, 822 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,120 Speaker 1: written and display kinds of screens, but now you can't 823 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,320 Speaker 1: because you can can really really small yeah, because we 824 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,400 Speaker 1: can print stomic conductor is using these lithography techniques to 825 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,480 Speaker 1: be really really super tiny. And you know, we invented 826 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,920 Speaker 1: these techniques mostly so we can make transistors really really small, 827 00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,040 Speaker 1: so we can make computer chips packed with all sorts 828 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 1: of little circuits on them. But we can also use 829 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 1: the same technology to make l E d s and LEDs. Remember, 830 00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:20,920 Speaker 1: are not monochromatic. They're not like tiny little lasers. Right, 831 00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:25,000 Speaker 1: Lasers shoot exactly one frequency, are very very tight band 832 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,800 Speaker 1: and frequency because the photons come from one atomic step. 833 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:31,640 Speaker 1: Ellis are not quite like that. The light they admit 834 00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,920 Speaker 1: is narrowly focused, doesn't have just a single wave length 835 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,400 Speaker 1: or frequency. It's like it is a little bit like 836 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:40,359 Speaker 1: in Contestant, and that it's kind of broad. Yeah. Yeah, 837 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,040 Speaker 1: they're broader than lasers, but not as broad as in Contestant. 838 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,400 Speaker 1: So that's why there are specific color, but they're not 839 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,600 Speaker 1: like a really tight band like lasers. So then when 840 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: I turn on the flashlight on my phone and I 841 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,680 Speaker 1: see this wide light come off, and that helps me 842 00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,400 Speaker 1: at night and get around at night, I'm actually seeing 843 00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,439 Speaker 1: not a white led, but like a whole bunch of red, 844 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:01,920 Speaker 1: blue and green lads mixed together. That's right. And when 845 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,799 Speaker 1: you look on your screen and you see white for 846 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:06,879 Speaker 1: the blank page and the word document of the novel 847 00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 1: you've been writing for ten years, than what you're really 848 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:13,640 Speaker 1: seeing our red, green and blue blinking, your failure action blinking. 849 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:15,839 Speaker 1: But you know, that's what Newton discovered is that white 850 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,680 Speaker 1: light is actually just a mixture of colored lights. There's 851 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,920 Speaker 1: no difference, There is no white photon, there's no color 852 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,440 Speaker 1: in the spectrum that is white. White light is just 853 00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:27,719 Speaker 1: a mixture of red, green, and blue. And so basically 854 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:33,200 Speaker 1: that increased our human level global efficiency for light by 855 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:36,040 Speaker 1: ten times. So now we can be a whole lot 856 00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,759 Speaker 1: more eco friendly. Yeah, except probably just means we made 857 00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:40,959 Speaker 1: a lot more bulbs, so probably using the same amount 858 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,520 Speaker 1: of electricity, and now we're just lighting everything up. You know, 859 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:46,680 Speaker 1: I changed all the light bulbs in my house for 860 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:50,279 Speaker 1: l d s and boy, your power bill drops like crazy. Yeah. Well, 861 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,520 Speaker 1: do you appreciate it though? For working? Like when you're 862 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,400 Speaker 1: drawing something, do you like using natural light or incandescent 863 00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,480 Speaker 1: light or LED light or does it not make any 864 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:02,040 Speaker 1: difference because you do everything at well, I drive everything 865 00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:07,560 Speaker 1: on the computer, so it's all LED power, baby, you know, yeah, 866 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,680 Speaker 1: I guess so. All right, Well that's pretty cool. I 867 00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:13,600 Speaker 1: have a new respect for blue lads now, and also 868 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:15,640 Speaker 1: liver respy for red and green lads. You know, I 869 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:18,280 Speaker 1: feel like they got the short end of the colored triangle. 870 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: They are singing the Nobel Blues, all right, but I think, 871 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,479 Speaker 1: you know, it points us to how even a small 872 00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,240 Speaker 1: discovery in physics or experimental physics can lead to basically 873 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,640 Speaker 1: revolution and how we lead our lives and what kinds 874 00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: of devices we use every day. That's right. Engineering can 875 00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:37,719 Speaker 1: change to the world. What can you guys replay that? 876 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:39,080 Speaker 1: Which is one more time? I just want to make 877 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,160 Speaker 1: sure that we heard it right. Can you replay it? 878 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:46,359 Speaker 1: Engineering can change to the world. You know, I'm gonna 879 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,640 Speaker 1: download it, frame it, frame it on an led frame. 880 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:51,279 Speaker 1: I should send you a little button. You can just 881 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,600 Speaker 1: press that and hear me say that. Hag into your 882 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:59,080 Speaker 1: phone and make it your ring tone. All right. Well, 883 00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:01,560 Speaker 1: we hope you joined that, and we hope you look 884 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,279 Speaker 1: at light in a whole different light. Thanks for tuning in, 885 00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:14,680 Speaker 1: See you next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that. 886 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,520 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of 887 00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:21,000 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcast from my heart Radio, 888 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,720 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 889 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:32,160 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,