In 2009 the smallest light bulb in the world was invented by scientists at UCLA. The light is so tiny that unless it is switched on, the filament is absolutely invisible to the naked eye! When turned on, the light is just a tiny pin-prick.
Carbon nanotube technology was used to create this miniscule bulb; the light’s carbon filament produced a light that is just 100 atoms wide! The truly innovative aspect to the development of this tiny light is that it represents a link between the boundaries of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. The carbon nanotube is sufficiently large for the traditional laws of thermodynamics to apply to it, yet it is also small enough to be described as molecular, thus the laws of quantum mechanics are called into action also. Thermodynamics and quantum mechanics have, until the development of this miniscule light, never been united as applicable at the same time. These two methods of explaining the universe have always seemed incompatible and so this light is a breakthrough in that it brings the two world theories together.
This tiny bulb could lead to a “theory of everything” where science is no longer divided between the two competing theories of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics! With no practical use however, one should not hold their breath for a range of LED spotlightsof this size to be released on the market. Yet for science, this tiny little bulb represents the beginning of something much bigger.
