These days, scientific advances are usually made by teams of researchers backed by large sums of money. Shuji Nakamura is an exception. A lone researcher at the obscure Nichia Corporation in rural Japan, he beat his well-funded competitors to become the first to develop a bright blue light-emitting diode (LED). Big deal, you might think. What difference does it make if the lights on my stereo can be blue? According to Johnstone, it makes a world of difference.

Bright blue LEDs, combined with red and green, can produce white light for domestic and commercial lighting. LEDs use very little energy, much less than even the energy-saving compact fluorescent lights that we are all encouraged to use. A shift to solid-state lighting would cause an enormous reduction in our production of greenhouse gases.

Nakamura is an unconventional character. In a country where devotion to career is often of paramount importance, he chose to work in an unknown company in the boondocks of Japan so that he would not have to move his family. He demonstrates little of the stereotypical Japanese deference to seniority. Johnstone’s admiration of Nakamura is clear. His portrayal is sympathetic but not simplistic. He writes of a man with extraordinary talent and perseverance, but also with his share of doubts and uncertainty.

Nakamura won the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize and Johnstone suggests that he may ultimately be awarded a Nobel Prize for his work. Johnstone is not alone in his high opinion of Nakamura: writing in Scientific American, author and journalist Glenn Zorpette says, “Nakamura put together a string of achievements that for genius and sheer improbability is as impressive as any other accomplishment in the history of semiconductor research.”

The physics of LEDs is difficult for a lay reader and the manufacturing methods are complex. Johnstone does a good job of explaining the technology without unnecessarily burdening the narrative. His experience as a science writer enables him to make interesting what in lesser hands could easily become dull and impenetrable.

Solid-state lighting has been described as the most important advance in lighting technology since Edison’s incandescent globe. “Nakamura changed the world,” claims Johnstone. This book is an interesting and well-crafted account of his story.

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