Starting with Albert Einstein, there are good number of physicists who have won Nobel physics prize in the modern physics area. When we measure the impact of invention on the environment, most valuable award looks to be this year's Nobel physics prize to the inventors of blue light emitting diode (LED).
Light emitting diode irrespective of its use for main lighting applications, was already a very key component in electronic system which is used basically for signal indication, electricity isolation, and in long-distance optical fibre communication. However LED was not bright enough and not natural enough for general lighting, until the invention of blue LED.
The researchers were trying continuously to improve the brightness of light emitting diode for general lighting applications, what they were missing was methods to emit blue light, which is important to generate white natural light. After inventing the method to generate bluelight, high brightness LEDs have now taken a stage of commercial success in every aspect of lighting.
There is no other light source which can last as long as LED lamps and also as efficient as LED lamps. Since from 2013, the growth of LED market has really taken off and it continues to grow for lot more years. They also produce very less heat while producing light and they operate from lower supply voltage.
Year 2014's Nobel physics prize was awarded to Isamu Akasaki, of Meijo University in Nagoya and Nagoya University, Japan; Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, Japan, and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, the researchers who invented blue light emitting diode.