Researchers Reverse Engineer Fireflies To Make More Efficient LEDs
Fireflies In The Forest Wikimedia CommonsFireflies have a neat trick for conserving light. Turns out, it could work for LEDs, too. Sometimes, a trick gets pulled off better in nature than it does in a laboratory. That might be the case with new research claiming fireflies' unique lanterns can be reverse-engineered for LED lights, making the bulbs as much as 55 percent more efficient. We've seen scientists get the idea to mimic the insect's chemical reaction, but this project deals with their also-impressive structure. This is how the researchers--a team from Belgium, France, and Canada--explained the process in a statement: Fireflies create light through a chemical reaction that takes place in specialized cells called photocytes. The light is emitted through a part of the insect's exoskeleton called the cuticle. Light travels through the cuticle more slowly than it travels through air, and the mismatch means a proportion of the light...