Invisible Hands, Peeping Toms, and the First Physics Nobel Prize

Sometimes the Nobel prize in physics requires a fair bit of decoding for the non-expert (such as last year's award for the theory behind the Higgs boson, or the award the year before "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems"). There's little room for confusion about this year's prize, which recognizes the inventors of the blue LED, the crucial technology for energy-efficient indoor LED lighting. But in terms of public acclaim,