Impact of Light on Health and Welfare

We read three articles on the impact of light on health. To read individual student responses, please follow the links to the Fall 2009 blogs on the right column.

Edelstein, E. (2009). Influence of Architectural Lighting on Health. InformeDesign Newsletter, 7 (2), 1-5.

O’Connor, A. (2009). The Claim: Daylight Saving Time Can Affect Your Health. New York Times. March 9. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/health/10real.html?em

Weiss, R. (2008). Lights at Night Are Linked to Breast Cancer. Washington Post. February 20. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902398.html?hpid=topnews

Earth Hour: Saturday March 28 at 8:30pm

http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Did you switch your lights off for an hour at 8:30pm during Earth Hour 2009?

Duke Energy, Chapel Hill Collaborate to Advance LED Technology in Lighting

http://www.duke-energy.com/news/releases/2009032501.asp

Light Model poster at DATS 2009

This poster was displayed at the Design, Art, and Technlogy Symposium at High Point University that took place on March 5th & 6th. The poster includes light models by the students in the interior lighting design class from Spring 2008 and 2009. Keep up the good work!

Daylight Saving Time

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/health/10real.html?em

This NYT article talks about the imapct of daylight saving time on health.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2009/03/its_time_for_double_daylight_s.html

This Washington Post article provides a balanced view of daylight saving time, and an agument for double DST!

LEDs, lamp life, and energy

NYT has been running a series of articles on LEDS. Here are some pertinent to our discussions yesterday, during the field trip to Vanstory.

How Long Did You Say That Bulb Would Last?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/how-long-did-you-say-that-bulb-will-last/

This article takes a look at the claim by LED manufacturers that LED lamps last 25,000-50,000 hours. What does it mean and how does it compare to other lamps?

Do Energy-Saving LED Lamps Save Energy?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/do-energy-saving-led-lamps-save-energy/

This article presents the following questions: If LEDs are more efficient to use because they consume less power, is the process of manufacturing LEDs also as energy efficient compared to other lamps?

LED’s Good Housekeeping Seal

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/leds-good-housekeeping-seal/

This article talks about the certification "future" of LEDs.

Austine Wood Comarow's installations with polarized light!

http://www.austine.com/

Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room.

The color red can make people’s work more accurate, but blue can make people more creative, a study suggests.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/science/06color.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Scientists Create a Black That Erases Virtually All Light

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/20/ST2008022001172.html

The article above discusses the invention of the blackest material till date that reflects only 0.045% of visible light! Compare it to the black surfaces that we saw in Jonathan and team's model!