The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea. Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription. Special thanks to our Patreon supporters! Join this list to help us keep our videos free, forever: https://ve42.co/PatreonDEB Huge thanks to the UC Santa Barbara Materials Dept (https://ssleec.ucsb.edu/) for taking us around. Thanks to Álvaro Bermejillo Seco for reviewing the science. Thanks to these especially helpful sources: Nobel Prize Biography - Shuji Nakamura - https://ve42.co/NakamuraNobel Johnstone, B. (2015). Brilliant!. Prometheus Books. - https://ve42.co/Johnstone2015 Nakamura, S., Pearton, S., & Fasol, G. (2010). The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story. Springer. - https://ve42.co/Nakamura2010 ▀▀▀ References: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8M2z2hIbag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGUteH93xNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idwKHQEw78g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoTALRhAqWc Touchstone, L. A. (2022). Nick Holonyak Jr. University of Illinois. - https://ve42.co/Touchstone2022 Perry, T. S. (1995). The Unsung Inventor. IEEE Spectrum. - https://ve42.co/Perry1995 Chabay, R. & Sherwood, B. (2011). Matter & interactions (4th ed.), S2: Semiconductors. Wiley. - https://ve42.co/ChabaySherwood How MOCVD Works via Aixtron - https://ve42.co/MOCVD Vangala, S. R., et al. (2019). Epitaxial growth of ZnSe on GaAs. Journal of Crystal Growth. - https://ve42.co/Vangala2019 Nakamura, S. (1991). GaN Growth Using GaN Buffer Layer. JJAP. - https://ve42.co/Nakamura3rd1991 Amano, H., et al. (1989). P-Type Conduction in Mg-Doped GaN w/ LEEBI. JJAP. - https://ve42.co/Amano1989 Huang, M., et al. (2021). Defects in Mg–H‐Codoped GaN. Physica Status Solidi. - https://ve42.co/Huang2021 Schubert, E. F. (2006). Light Emitting Diodes, Ch 4: LED basics. Cambridge University Press. - https://ve42.co/RPI-LEDs Kitada, C. (2001). Blue About Japan. Japan Inc. - https://ve42.co/Kitada2001 Whitaker, T. (2002). Nakamura loses Nichia patent battle. Optics.org. - https://ve42.co/NichiaSales3 Pirates Osaka. (2014). Nakamura awarded Nobel Prize in Physics. Hatena Blog. - https://ve42.co/NichiaSales1 Growth Bozu via Twitter. - https://ve42.co/NichiaSales2 Rose, J. (2014). Blue LEDs – Filling the world with new light. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. - https://ve42.co/Rose2014 Pattison, P. M., et al. (2017). LED lighting efficacy. Comptes Rendus Physique. - https://ve42.co/Pattison2017 Electricity pricing via EIA - https://ve42.co/ElectricityPricing Lane, K., et al. (2023). Lighting. IEA. - https://ve42.co/LightingIEA LED Footprint via The Climate Group - https://ve42.co/ClimateGroupLED Nichia’s History via Nichia - https://ve42.co/NichiaHistory Shuji Nakamura via Wikipedia - https://ve42.co/NakamuraWiki Images & Video: Lighting the World via UCTVInsight on YouTube - https://ve42.co/UCTVep2 & https://ve42.co/UCTVep3 Palo Alto Times 1971 Article via Newspapers.com - https://ve42.co/Newspapers Nick Holonyak, Jr. and the LED via UIUC on YouTube - https://ve42.co/HolonyakIllinois The Original Blue LED via Science History Institute on YouTube - https://ve42.co/OGBlueLED Maxfield, M. (2022). Compound Semiconductors. EE Journal. - https://ve42.co/Maxfield2022 M. Stutzmann, et al. (2001). Playing with Polarity. pss (b). - https://ve42.co/Stutzman2001 Isamu Akasaki in 1995 via Andrey Nikolaev on YouTube - https://ve42.co/AsakiNikolaev Pioneer TX-610 Stereo Tuner via Ian Marino on YouTube - https://ve42.co/StereoMarino Shuji Nakamura via EPO on YouTube - https://ve42.co/NakamuraEPO Nichia Campus via Nichia on LinkedIn - https://ve42.co/NichiaHQ Nichia via TDElektronik on YouTube - https://ve42.co/NichiaTDE Violeds Sterilization of COVID-19 via Seoul Viosys - https://ve42.co/SterilizationUV ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Chris Harper, Max Paladino, Balkrishna Heroor, Adam Foreman, Orlando Bassotto, Tj Steyn, meg noah, KeyWestr, TTST, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Anton Ragin, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Juan Benet, David Johnston, Ubiquity Ventures, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, Sam Lutfi ▀▀▀ Directed by Emily Zhang Written by Emily Zhang, Ricky Nathvani, and Derek Muller Edited by Trenton Oliver Illustrated by Jakub Misiek Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Mike Radjabov, David Szakaly, Ivy Tello, and Alondra Vitae Filmed by Derek Muller, Raquel Nuno, and Trenton Oliver Additional research by Gregor Čavlović Produced by Emily Zhang, Han Evans, Gregor Čavlović, and Derek Muller Thumbnail by Ren Hurley Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Pond5 Music from Epidemic Sound