Wait…. Don’t write off the incandescent light bulb

LED bulbs are fast encroaching on incandescent light sources because of their far higher efficiency when producing visible light. But Junichi Takahara, director of photonics at the Advanced Research Center (PARC) of Osaka University, points out that incandescent bulbs are actually very efficient electron to photon converters if you take both visible and infra-red emissions into account.