Brilliant!

To celebrate the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics to Shuji Nakamura (along with two other Japanese scientists), this newly updated edition profiles the gifted Japanese engineer who is largely responsible for the coming revolution in lighting technology. Veteran technology writer Bob Johnstone not only was the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, but also received the brilliant engineer’s full cooperation in providing a series of exclusive interviews for this book.

This updated edition contains a new preface and an afterword that summarizes Nakamura’s most recent accomplishments, including the story of Soraa, a lighting company cofounded by Nakamura and two colleagues. Using an improved crystal growth technology pioneered by Nakamura, Soraa debuted new “second-generation” LEDs that are much smaller and more energy-efficient, produce better color, and have the potential to replace halogen lamps. In learning about this Nobel Prize-winning innovator, readers will better understand the new lighting revolution and its profound impact on the world.

Author Biography

Bob Johnstone is the author of Switching to Solar: What We Can Learn from Germany’s Success in Harnessing Clean Energy; Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers, and the Transformation of Learning; We Were Burning: Japanese Entrepreneurs and the Forging of the Electronic Age; and other works. He has also contributed numerous articles on technology to Forbes, Nature, New Scientist, MIT Technology Review, Wired, and the Far Eastern Economic Review.