How the Blue LED Quietly Rewired the World's Energy Grid

Logosofia no Dia a Dia · Sep 4, 2026 · 21m

We trace the century-long arc from Edison's glowing wire to the semiconductor that now lights our cities, examining how a Nobel-winning blue LED breakthrough collapsed lighting's share of global electricity from 15% to under 10% in a single decade. We dig into the physics of why tungsten was a 95% waste of energy, the phosphor trick that creates white light, and whether we've actually hit the efficiency ceiling—or if the real gains are now happening in the system around the chip, from filament LEDs to Li-Fi. Episode 5030 — myweirdprompts.com/n/5030 (permanent short link…