Alumunium Foil the Future of Lighting

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Thanks to the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison, humankind was gifted with the electric light bulb. Since its first public debut on December 31, 1879, it has been our bright shining presence in the darkness as well as introducing a new word into
the English lexicon--watt as in "Who's on first and watts on second?" Yes, pun intended with all due respects to Abbott and Costello.

Now thanks to the work of researchers at the University of Illinois, the light bulb has met more than its match, "outwatted" by lamps made of aluminum foil. To be more precise, panels less than 1 mm thick are constructed of aluminum foil, sapphire and small quantities of gas. These lamps are designed to hang on walls like picture frames. But they can also be mounted on curved surfaces such as windshields and made to glow in a variety of colors.

Similar in operation to fluorescent lamps, these microcavity plasma lamps utilize electrons to excite gas which then radiates light yet in more compact fashion, requiring neither "ballast, reflector or heavy metal housing." They are brighter, lighter and more efficient than incandescent lights and with fine tuning, are expected to exceed the efficiency of fluorescent lights.

These new plasma lamps are said to be very inexpensive yet are at least six times thinner than a panel made from LEDs (light-emitting diodes). The researchers also foresee medical applications for them. For example, the technology can be implemented in hi-tech, disposable bandages which emit ultraviolet light. A bandage such as this could be used to treat certain diseases such as psorasis which can be driven into remission through narrow-spectrum uv light.

Look into your crystal balls and see the future of lighting. It is alumunium foil.