# There’s something off about LED bulbs — which will soon be, thanks to a federal ban, the only kind you can buy.  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Tom Scocca]] - Full Title:: There’s something off about LED bulbs — which will soon be, thanks to a federal ban, the only kind you can buy. - Category: #articles - URL: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/led-light-bulbs-investigation.html ## Highlights > I started to confide in people that I was seeing things, that the *light* was *wrong,* and usually they knew exactly what I was talking about ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxskctm7j9cfqb825gnntx)) > If you want the *objects* that the light shines on to look the same, you’re getting into a different color question, specifically the color-rendering index ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxvaz9kqwk85z92ce5zqm3)) > **Ecologically, the case for LEDs** is unassailable. Economically and practically, too, they’re a godsend ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxxehegnf6fy7cbajabe2n)) > But right now, it’s one more thing that overpromises and under-delivers ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy0s21d947p7wba6kdznyx)) > What Nelson had discovered is that LEDs are not good or bad but more like weird ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy1ner4w1360zdmvey82n9)) > **For something you may** assume is universal and constant, light turns out to be a culturally mediated and often paradoxical phenomenon ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy4effxbhp3sr37my0e1ny)) > Should the ideal artificial light approximate the sun, or should it approximate a flame? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy5hhqr5sn412c4qpaaq1b)) > Still, today, this preference for orangish light over bluish is not universal. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy6zc6gen3cajhs4e160t3)) > Their color temperature was 6,400 Kelvin — the harshest, cheapest possible light, a light so blue that when I Googled it, what came up were grow bulbs ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyybt7kxcq9yzdh2kp9rkh0)) > Instead, a common method is to adjust how frequently they switch off and on, which is dozens of times per second. Extra-sensitive people can sometimes detect this flicker or find themselves with unexplained headaches and dizziness ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyydb7n5jz3mxcyw59hgjth)) > there’s amber nail polish ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyyepdnh4vyjyw0scrth3dg)) > Ordinary, transparent amber from the drugstore ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyyfe0xfhdekwzzg9nk5nbj)) # There’s something off about LED bulbs — which will soon be, thanks to a federal ban, the only kind you can buy.  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Tom Scocca]] - Full Title:: There’s something off about LED bulbs — which will soon be, thanks to a federal ban, the only kind you can buy. - Category: #articles - URL: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/led-light-bulbs-investigation.html ## Highlights > I started to confide in people that I was seeing things, that the *light* was *wrong,* and usually they knew exactly what I was talking about ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxskctm7j9cfqb825gnntx)) > If you want the *objects* that the light shines on to look the same, you’re getting into a different color question, specifically the color-rendering index ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxvaz9kqwk85z92ce5zqm3)) > **Ecologically, the case for LEDs** is unassailable. Economically and practically, too, they’re a godsend ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyxxehegnf6fy7cbajabe2n)) > But right now, it’s one more thing that overpromises and under-delivers ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy0s21d947p7wba6kdznyx)) > What Nelson had discovered is that LEDs are not good or bad but more like weird ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy1ner4w1360zdmvey82n9)) > **For something you may** assume is universal and constant, light turns out to be a culturally mediated and often paradoxical phenomenon ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy4effxbhp3sr37my0e1ny)) > Should the ideal artificial light approximate the sun, or should it approximate a flame? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy5hhqr5sn412c4qpaaq1b)) > Still, today, this preference for orangish light over bluish is not universal. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyy6zc6gen3cajhs4e160t3)) > Their color temperature was 6,400 Kelvin — the harshest, cheapest possible light, a light so blue that when I Googled it, what came up were grow bulbs ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyybt7kxcq9yzdh2kp9rkh0)) > Instead, a common method is to adjust how frequently they switch off and on, which is dozens of times per second. Extra-sensitive people can sometimes detect this flicker or find themselves with unexplained headaches and dizziness ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyydb7n5jz3mxcyw59hgjth)) > there’s amber nail polish ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyyepdnh4vyjyw0scrth3dg)) > Ordinary, transparent amber from the drugstore ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gwyyfe0xfhdekwzzg9nk5nbj))