Each pixel in a micro-LED display gets its color from electrifying inorganic materials, which are more durable and resilient than the organic materials in OLEDs.

Unlike LCDs, OLEDs do not have a backlight behind every pixel, enabling them to deliver theoretically infinite contrast and deeper blacks.

By converting ultraviolet light into visible light and reflecting specific visible colors, fluorescent pigments can often provide much brighter, neon-like color than traditional pigments.

LEDs emit pure colors, while incandescent bulbs filter white light

LCD displays use the same principle as polarizing sunglasses, which act as filters that block light waves traveling with specific orientations.

Flexible integrated circuits can be built from carbon nanotubes and elastic materials

Quantum dots are nanocrystals that can emit different colors, even when made of the same material, depending on their size.

Microchip fabricators create light by heating tin droplets to over 220,000 Kelvin

Bioluminescence may provide a sustainable alternative to electric lighting

Within fabrication plants, it takes about three months to manufacture hundreds of microchips from a single wafer of pure silicon using light and significant quantities of electricity, water, and hazardous chemicals.

View a breakdown of the semiconducting materials behind LEDs, which can produce different wavelengths of light through the introduction of chemical impurities.

A smartphone contains over a dozen rare earth elements

Liquid crystals were accidentally discovered while studying carrot cholesterols in 1888—decades before they served as the foundation of various display technologies.

Lasers help build the layers of circuit components in microchips

Only one pixel is activated at a time on a CRT television, even when you watch an entire screen of video.

Not all colored materials can become pigments—the process of grinding materials down into smaller particles may destroy the color-producing molecules.

Creating a perfect red pigment that is vivid, durable, and nontoxic is likely impossible.

Organic pigments can be made in a lab or in nature—the term indicates the presence of carbon-hydrogen bonds, not their source.

Photonic integrated circuits use light instead of electrons within circuit components

Blacklights can illuminate certain biological materials, including blood, teeth, and fingernails, because they contain fluorophores—molecules that visibly glow immediately after exposure to higher-energy light.

Microreactors are 100 to 1,000 times smaller than traditional nuclear reactors but still generate thermal energy for heating or electricity by splitting atomic nuclei.

Most advanced touch screens rely on electrical charge in your skin

The prevalence of microplastics came from plastic’s affordability and versatility

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, increases image detail by expanding the range of the darkest black and the brightest white and the steps between them.

Microfiber cloths have four times as much surface area as similarly sized cotton, enabling them to more effectively trap dirt and oil.

Chip-based 3D printers can be pocket-sized and involve no moving parts

As of 2025, the FDA states that microplastics have not yet been shown to pose a risk to human health, though it acknowledges that evidence suggests microplastics and nanoplastics have entered the food supply.

Limited battery life and increasing discomfort prevent extensive use of mixed reality headsets

Solutions of bioluminescent bacteria can create FOMO-inducing living art

Some graphics processing units advertised under different product names, such as Nvidia's RTX 5070-Ti and RTX 5080, are identically manufactured microchips with different defect counts.

Cathode-ray tube televisions were once one of the most common particle accelerators, producing images by firing electrons at screens.

The applications and industrial uses of graphene, the single-atom-thick material

CNET previews CES 2026

Some organisms' colors come from structural color—tiny structures that distinctly scatter different colors of light, eliminating some while reinforcing others that become visible.

View a gallery of biofluorescent animals, which contain cells that emit various colors when exposed to ultraviolet light.

High-powered red light therapy—delivered directly to nerve fibers via a fiber optic needle—has been used in recent experimental research to suppress pain.

Learn about the terminology used to describe television brightness, color, and gamma—a measure of how the display transitions from pure black to pure white.

Mixed reality devices and other wearables may usurp smartphones

There is a limit to how small transistors can become because they rely on being able to allow or block the flow of electrons, but quantum effects allow electrons to leak through these barriers, generating heat, current loss, and potential data errors.

View a gallery of plants made to shine using ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence photography, in which organisms re-emit the ultraviolet light they are exposed to in vibrant, glowing colors.

Glow sticks shine brighter and burn out faster at warmer temperatures because the additional thermal energy increases the rate of the underlying chemical reaction.

You manipulate an electric field whenever you use most touch screens, and software analyzes changes to the field to identify where you tapped.

Fast charging can degrade batteries faster by exposing them to higher temperatures.

Bioluminescent organisms produce their own light through chemical reactions involving unstable, energetic molecules, while biofluorescent organisms re-emit light shone on them at a different wavelength.

Water vapor is used to manage heat in high-end smartphones

Humans can distinguish an estimated 10 million colors—a number that is limited by photopigments that only activate when exposed to specific wavelengths of light.

Red light therapy—a treatment harnessing a specific form of energy that penetrates the top layers of skin—is marketed for skincare and wellness, but has its roots in NASA plant growth research.

Despite being derived from crude oil, which itself comes from organic material, synthetic plastic isn't biodegradable because it hasn't existed long enough for microbes to have developed mechanisms to break it down.

Microplastics have been found everywhere there is liquid or vapor water, from the oceans and tropical waters to polar ice and the air we breathe, posing growing risks to wildlife and ecosystems.

Microchips in payment cards improve security by generating unique transaction codes

Massive blooms of microscopic algae called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.