New light to illuminate the world

The Nobel Prize in Physics of 2014 was awarded to the three scientists who did the pioneering work for development of high-brightness GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this article, the award-winning grounds of the three scientists and the significance of blue LED on human society were interpreted firstly. Then, it was reviewed briefly that the arduous work did by the winners in the 1980s-1990s to develop the blue LED, including initial technical route selection, the breakthroughs of key technical bottlenecks, and the final success.Last, the significance of the blue LED to drive development of industry and academy were also discussed.