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Three Japanese-born scientists have won the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing blue-light emitting diodes (LEDs) that have revolutionised the lighting industry. 

Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and U.S. scientist Shuji Nakamura won the award for their 1990s invention, which has led to the use of environmentally-friendly light sources worldwide.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the technology is just 20 years old, 'but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.' 

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Shuji Nakamura (left), Isamu Akasaki (centre) and Hiroshi Amano (right), all born in Japan, have won the 2014 Nobel Physics Prize, for their environmentally-friendly blue LEDs. The lighting breakthrough creates more energy-efficient home lighting, and can improve keyhole surgery techniques

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the invention is just 20 years old, 'but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.' In this image Shuji Nakamura demonstrates different LED lights during a presentation in Santa Barbara

Akasaki, 85, is a professor at Meijo University and distinguished professor at Nagoya University.

Amano, 54, is also a professor at Nagoya University, while the 60-year-old Nakamura is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The laureates triggered a transformation of lighting technology when they produced bright blue light from semiconductors, something scientist had struggled with for decades, the Nobel committee said.

Using the blue light, LED lamps emitting white light could be created in a new way.

'As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth's resources,' the committee said. 

LED bulbs (pictured) last for 100,000 hours compared with 10,000 hours for fluorescent tubes and 1,000 hours for tungsten filament light bulbs.They also use around 90 per cent less energy than incandescent bulbs.

Scientists at the UOC are making the LED revolution...

'They succeeded where everyone else had failed,' the Nobel committee added. 

'Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.

LED bulbs last for 100,000 hours compared with 10,000 hours for fluorescent tubes and 1,000 hours for tungsten filament light bulbs. 

They also use around 90 per cent less energy than incandescent bulbs. 

Professor Akasaki said in a nationally-televised news conference that he had often been told that his research wouldn't bear fruit within the 20th century.

'But I never felt that way,' he said. 'I was just doing what I wanted to do.' 

The benefits of increased efficiency could go far beyond home lighting, and the researchers are now looking at applications that extend from biomedicine to power electronics.

The University of Manchester, for instance, is planning to build tiny LED devices that can be implanted by keyhole surgery in cancer patients being treated with radiotherapy. 

The laureates triggered a transformation of lighting technology when they produced bright blue light from semiconductors in the 1990s, something scientist had struggled with for decades, the Nobel committee said. Journalists waiting for the beginning of this morning's press conference are pictured

Find out what happens if a Laureate doesn't believe they won

'If a patient moves while an X-ray or proton beam is directed at their tumour, then they risk healthy tissue being damaged,' explained Sir Colin Humphreys from the University of Cambridge.

'An LED attached to a sensor would detect movement at the site of the tumour in order to redirect the beam.' 

Last year's physics award went to Britain's Peter Higgs and Belgian colleague Francois Englert for helping to explain how matter formed after the Big Bang. 

Up to three Nobel laureates and two different works can be selected for the Nobel Prize in Physics.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 

Edinburgh-based Peter Higgs (pictured) and Belgian Francois Englebert won the prize last year

1903

Pierre and Marie Curie, French and Polish-French respectively, receive the prize along with Frenchman Antoine Henri Becquerel for their discovery and subsequent research of radioactivity.

1921

German-born Albert Einstein wins the award for his services to theoretical physics and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect – which revealed metals emit electrons when light shines on them.

1932

German Werner Heisenberg receives the prize for discovering the principles of quantum mechanics, which we now know to govern the behaviour of subatomic particles.

1978

Americans Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson jointly receive the prize for discovering cosmic microwave background radiation – the thermal radiation left over in the universe from the Big Bang.

2013

Briton Peter Higgs and Belgian Francois Englebert scoop the prize for successfully predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle – the 'God particle' found by Cern in 2012 that could explain why matter has mass.

Compared with other Nobel Prizes, some believe the nomination and selection process for the prize in Physics is much longer and far more rigorous.

Nobel Prize season began yesterday with the announcement of the 102nd Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

The prize is awarded for 'the most important discovery', rather than for a lifetime's portfolio of work by a researchers, doctor or scientist.

Yesterday's prize was given to John O'Keefe at University College London, and the Norwegian husband-and-wife team, Edvard and May-Britt Moser.

The team discovered cells in the brain that act as the body's internal global positioning system.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out on December 10, which is also the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's (left) death in 1896. On the right is a list of the top ten most popular Nobel Laureates in Physics

Since these cells are among the first to be hit in Alzheimer's, understanding how they are degraded should shed important light on the disease process.

Winners must be alive, but they are not contacted until very shortly before the official announcement.

This rule proved problematic in 2011, when it was discovered that Canadian Ralph Steinman, had had died of cancer four days before being told about his Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced tomorrow, and the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

This will be followed by the award of the Nobel peace prize on Friday and the Nobel Prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

Winners in all categories receive 8.0 million Swedish kronor this year – just over £690,000 or $1.1 million.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

From 1901 to 2013, 876 have received Nobel Prizes including the likes of Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela and Ernest Hemingway.