What was considered old technology, is new again.
Researchers from MIT took a counterintuitive step in the search for energy efficient illumination: Instead of devising a new means of lighting our living spaces, they resurrected the old, trusty incandescent light bulb. The old bulbs, much maligned for their relative inefficiency as compared to LEDs, were upgraded with new technology that captures and recycles wasted heat, potentially reaching efficiencies four times higher than LEDs.
Incandescent light bulbs, as we know them today, were invented in the 1880s by Thomas Edison and revolutionized our lives by emitting bright, steady light into homes and factories. Incandescent bulbs are constructed with a thin filament of tungsten wire surrounded by inert gas. When you flip a light switch, electrons are packed into a very small space, which heats the wire to around 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit and gives off light across the whole spectrum.
However, this ...
