Getting that Warm Glow

LED frame

LEDs may become a viable light source -- if they become as efficient as fluorescents and do something about the chilly bluish glow. Fortunately, researchers are working on just that.

(Not that the blue glow is always a bad thing: check out the DIY project pictured above, which was blogged over at AT:LA.)

All it takes is a surface coating of properly tuned nanocrystals. (We know, we know -- how obvious!) But this is a different and more efficient approach. Now, LEDs are coated with phosphor to whiten the blue light they emit. The problem is the phosphor coating scatters light and decreases efficiency.

Here's how the new LEDs stack up against existing white LEDs, CFLs, and old-fashioned light bulbs.