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Editorial Briefing
The bright future of LED lighting

Jan 2015

The bright future of LED lighting

Although sales will continue for as long as inventory remains, worldwide production of incandescent lights (lamps) has mostly been phased out by the push for more energy-efficient lighting and improvements in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Between 2009 and 2015 the price of an LED lamp as bright as a 60-watt incandescent lamp dropped from U.S. $70 to $10. Meanwhile, the efficiency (or efficacy) of LEDs for turning power into light (as measured in lumens per watt) increased, as did their working lifetime, which greatly lowered their effective operating costs. See also: Fluorescent lamp; Illuminance; Illumination; Incandescent lamp; Lamp; Light-emitting diode; Luminous efficacy; Luminous efficiency; Luminous flux

Editorial Briefing
Shedding light on cell differentiation

Feb 2024

Shedding light on cell differentiation

Using non-destructive imaging of living tissue in Arabidopsis plants, a team of researchers led by Cara M. Winter at Duke University in North Carolina has captured unprecedented details about how root growth occurs in real-time at the fundamental level of stem cells. These special cells give rise to all tissue types by “differentiating” into the specific kinds of cells comprising organs and other anatomical structures. Researchers have sought to understand how cellular differentiation works in nature to better grasp cell division as a whole and its role in certain diseases, such as cancer, that are caused by cells dividing out of control. See also: Cell (biology); Histology; Plant growth; Stem cell

Editorial Briefing
Turn your smartphone into a microscope

Jan 2018

Turn your smartphone into a microscope

Researchers from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics have developed a smartphone microscope that uses the camera’s internal flash as the light source. Their development, described in Scientific Reports (February 2018), is not the first smartphone microscope. It is, however, the first smartphone microscope that does not require an externally powered light source. Consisting of only two parts—a 3D-printed clip and a lens—it is simple and inexpensive to produce. See also: Cellphone cameras; Lens (optics); Materials science and engineering; Microscope; Optical microscope

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