The Nobel prize would cheer someone up. Chad has an excellent summary of this over at Uncertain Principles, which includes many links to more good stuff.
That [difference between red and blue LEDs] seems like a pretty small change, dude. How is that worth a Nobel?
Well, because it’s really frickin’ hard to do.
…
It’s not a paradigm shift in terms of the basic physics, but it’s a ton of hard work and new technological development, and richly deserves the Nobel.
Another good piece at Starts With a Bang
http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog/archives/Daily/2014/2014-10/2014-10-03.html
The single greatest economic advance in human history – a box.
If you are really onto something, the wise heads of local management and government regulation will do everything in their considerable powers to squelch it. If you succeed anyway, they’ll steal it from you. If you survive that, government will tax you to death – run offshore. Example: Nakamura.