In a discovery shaped by more than a decade of steady, incremental effort rather than a dramatic breakthrough, scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and their collaborators demonstrated that great ideas flourish when paired with patience.

Flashback to 2011: a small group of young researchers gathered around an aging optical bench at the NUS Department of Chemistry, watching a faint, flickering glow on a screen. Their goal seemed deceptively simple: make an insulating crystal emit light when electricity flowed through it. The challenge, however, was nearly impossible.