LED light bulbs are one of the biggest things in artificial lighting these days. Their main selling point is that they’re incredibly energy efficient and long lasting. Now scientists have had a breakthrough that may have created the best LED light bulbs ever. These new LED lights mimic the look of sunlight almost exactly.
Rise and Shine
In many ways, society was transformed by the advent of the light bulb. Suddenly, people could now stay up late, work, study or party without being at the mercy of the sun. A side effect, however, is that our bodies natural wake/sleep patterns have been considerably altered and artificial light is nothing like the real deal – the sun’s life nurturing rays, so essential to our health. In an effort to help people who spend long hours in poorly lit offices or live in areas with little sunlight (Beijing, anyone?), a team of Italian engineers have developed a remarkable LED-based lighting system which mimics natural sunlight. Yes, this is a low-input LED sun!
The sunshine we love to greet each morning isn’t exactly the same as the rays leaving the sun. In between the outer atmosphere and Earth’s surface, light’s properties become altered through a process known as Rayleigh scattering. Ever wonder why the sky is blue? That’s Rayleigh scattering at work – the scattering of light off of the molecules of the air, and can be extended to scattering from particles up to about a tenth of the wavelength of the light. This phenomenon is most effective at short wavelengths (the blue end of the visible spectrum), hence the color of the sky. Red just goes through.
