Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED

Bro really went from "Ignored for not having a PhD" to "Nobel Prize winner"

One of the greatest examples of how we only see the end result of hard work. My man worked 84 hour weeks for over 18 months just to hit the first clue that he was on the right path. That's a level of tenacity that I cannot help but admire.

Inventors getting screwed by companies seems like a common story

“in front of the house was ocean. blue always” that statement made me cry. love this story

So he was underfunded, underappreciated and undersold, yet he almost single-handedly created one of the most important technologies in the modern world, a true legend. And I got to learn his story from an interesting, high quality source. Thanks again Derek

I came here to learn why blue was so difficult to make… I didn’t know this was the story of a man who discovered a landmark piece of technology. Just the thought of him staring at a small blue light, completely understanding it was his life’s work and his masterpiece. True happiness in a blue glow.

I used to do undergrad research at UC Santa Barbara, the lab I worked in was on the same floor where Nakamora works. One time I went to go to the bathroom and saw him brushing his teeth and getting ready for the day at one of the sinks. that guy still lives and breathes his lab work :)

There was a drama in that blue led light. Nakamura deserves a monument for his invention. Imagine how he helped us aside from lights but to the less emission of CO2. He is a hero and should be remembered on the generations to come.

Mr. Nakamura is a hidden giant everyone should know more about. Incredible tenacity and great video.

It’s so dumb how it’s never just “this guy changed the world and got compensated fairly for it” there’s always some corporate bs in the way

Which is why his nobel prize was well deserved. He changed everything.

Would love to thank this guy for bringing to life the colors of literally every electronic out their that we take for granted

Disobedience in Japan is extreme rare. This guy is TWO true heroes.

This story really needs a movie made about it

This video has everything I appreciate in videos: an informative, representative and intriguing title and thumbnail, a great explanation that works without the visuals but is supported by strong visuals, proper immersion and a good build-up making me root for the protagonist, and even great production quality for the story-telling. I came here knowing very little about LEDs and leave with a bit more knowledge and a lot more appreciation! The best thing is that I never was very good at science and physics, but you managed to keep me on board all the way; I may not understand it as well as others, but I didn't feel left behind. Thank you for broadening my horizon a little today!

they deserve more than a nobel pize. unlike so many other nobel prizes this invention really benefits humankind on a huge magnitude

Don’t ever go back making “television”. This is so much better. A great story from beginning to end with a spectacular entry of the main character. No spoilers, no previews. YouTube at its best. TV will never reach this level of storytelling. Hats off to your illustrator too.

In the mid 1990s, I was working in a research lab where we were in competition with Nichia in the development of GaN blue LED and lasers, also using our home-grown MOCVD machines. Dr. Nakamura was always 2 (or more!) steps ahead of us. I still vividly remember when we got our hands on a prototype of his deep blue LEDs after a conference. We turned it on in the lab, with lights down, expecting a weak blue emission, as we got from our own devices. It came on so bright and so blue, it illuminated the whole room! It blew our mind, we couldn’t believe it. How had he done that? He was the blue LED magician. Nobel prize well deserved, and then some.

I remember that 1994 era very well, when I was hankering for someone to come up with hi-res color flat-panel displays to replace the bulky CRT I was using for my personal desktop computer while working on my undergraduate studies in electrical engineering. You shed a lot of light on a complex technology that was in development at the time and that I knew nothing about until I saw your very instructive video. Thank you for the work that you do to make your knowledge available to all.

Its just too satisfying to watch this video of someone struggling to make something so significant to us