Light Emitting Diode

Hello. I am a little light. My name is LED. I am not like the big glass light bulbs you might see. They get very hot and can break. Ouch. I am very small and very strong. I love to glow in so many pretty colors. I can be red like a juicy apple, blue like the big sky, or green like the soft grass. I was born to make the world a brighter and happier place, one tiny glow at a time.

I have a very special birthday. A very smart and kind man named Nick helped me come alive. He was working in his lab on a sunny day, October 9th, 1962. A lab is a room where smart people make new things. He took some special, sparkly ingredients and mixed them all together very carefully. He was hoping to make something wonderful. And then, all of a sudden—poof. I blinked for the very first time. I was a tiny, happy, red light. I was so excited to shine for everyone to see. I was born.

When I first started to glow, I could only be red. Red is a beautiful color, but I wanted to have friends so we could make a rainbow. Soon, other smart people helped my colorful friends to be born. First came a yellow light, then a green one. A long time later, my very special blue friend was made. Now, we all shine together. We can mix our lights to make bright white light to help you read your books. We are the blinking lights in your toys and the pretty lights on your holiday tree. We make the world colorful and bright, and we love to help everyone see.