Ceravision, based in Milton Keynes, have created a bulb that doesn’t use electrodes – the main reason why bulbs die. As a result, this new wonder bulb should last for thousands of hours and outlive the appliances into which it’s inserted.

But how does it work? From the article:

“The device uses microwaves to transform electricity into light. It consists of a relatively small lump of aluminium oxide into which a hole has been bored. When the aluminium oxide is bombarded with microwaves generated from the same sort of device that powers a microwave oven, it generates a concentrated electric field in the void.”

While traditional bulbs convert only 5% of energy to light and CFLs make use of around 15%, the Ceravision bulb converts over 50%.

And the invention has other benefits too. The bulb doesn’t use a filament, which means it will need replacing far less often, which in turn means less CO2 from production as well as lower costs for the household. The bulb also lacks the traces of mercury that CFLs have, so will be easier and cleaner to dispose of when it does eventually burn out.