U.S.-Japan Team Wins Nobel for Physics

Two scientists from Japan and one from the U.S. won the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for their invention of an environmentally friendly light source. Isamu Akasaki, 85, and Hiroshi Amano, 54, of Nagoya University in Japan and Shuji Nakamura, 60, of UC Santa Barbara won for creating blue light-emitting diodes that have “enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources,” according to Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The invention of the blue lights, which is about 20 years old, changed the way scientists used white light and helped lead to LED lamps.