Research

Researchers in the U.S. and Spain recently announced they have discovered a new property of light, called self-torque. They found that light can be twisted.

Electrical contractors consider themselves highly influential in lighting-equipment selection for both new construction and retrofit projects. That’s one key finding from the 2019 CII Lighting Trends Survey, which ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR conducted using the 1,000 members on its Subscriber Research Panel.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released findings of a new study on handheld flicker meters. The study found that handheld flicker meters today are capable of providing performance nearing that of a benchtop meter in a controlled environment.

On behalf of DOE’s SSL Program, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is planning to conduct a study examining dirt depreciation and other optical changes occurring in LED street or area lights over long-term periods of performance, potentially approaching their full life cycles. For the study, PNNL seeks LED street or area lights that, ideally, are nearing the end of their anticipated life; however, any luminaire with more than 10,000 cumulative hours of operation will be considered.

A new University of Exeter study found that attaching LED lights to gillnets used in commercial fishing can reduce the number of seabirds accidentally caught and killed by more than 85 percent.

In April 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its final GATEWAY report documenting the performance of LED luminaires in a high-temperature outdoor lighting environment over four years. DOE’s GATEWAY program, which evaluates projects demonstrating LED capability, studied the results of a retrofit of quartz metal halide area lighting along a 7.2-mile stretch in the Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol Area between the U.S. and Mexico. Temperatures in this area can top 100 degrees Fahrenheit at sunset.

A 2017 German study found an alarming reduction in flying insect populations, attributing it partially to changes of climate and habitat. More recently, scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries have discovered that regions that have experienced a sharp decline in flying insects also have high levels of light pollution.

Researchers at Michigan State University studied the brains of rodents after exposing them to dim and bright light for a month. They found that consistent exposure to dim or bright light affected their brains differently.

The University of Toledo recently published the results of a study finding that blue light transforms vital molecules in the eye’s retina into cell killers, which can accelerate age-related macular degeneration. After substantial media coverage, the study’s senior author issued a clarification indicating that while certain wavelengths of light induces cell death, blue light from computer devices was not specifically studied.