Glow-in-the-dark

For nineteenth-century scientists, the obvious way to account for the laws of black-body radiation was to use classical physics to derive its characteristics. However, much to their dismay, they found that the characteristics they deduced did not match their observations. Worst of all was the ultraviolet catastrophe classical physics predicted that any hot body should emit intense ultraviolet radiation and even x-rays and y-rays According to classical physics, a hot object would devastate the countryside with high-frequency radiation. Even a human body at 37°C would glow in the dark. There would, in fact, be no darkness. 

Short piece. "Around 1602, Vincenzo Casciorola of Bologna, discovered a translucent mineral in fields near Monte Paterna, some 4 miles from Bologna, which when calcined acquired the property of glowing in the dark after exposure to sunlight."... 

As alpha and gamma emitters, radium isotopes allow other material such as zinc sulfide and glass to glow in the dark. Its applications have been cut back owing to the dangers involved in its production. 

Glow-in-the-dark molecules possess such metastable quantum states. The reason why the light release persists is that demotion of an electron from the metastable state to the ground state can only... 

Phosphorus - the atomic number is 15 and the chemical symbol is P. The name derives from the Greek phosphoros for bringing light , since white phosphorus oxidizes spontaneously in air and glows in the dark. This was also the ancient name for the planet Venus, when it appears before sunrise. It was discovered by the German merchant Hennig Brand in 1669. 

Radium is extremely radioactive. It glows in the dark with a faint bluish light. Radiums radioisotopes undergo a series of four decay processes each decay process ends with a stable isotope of lead. Radium-223 decays to Pb-207 radium-224 and radium-228decay to Pb-208 radium-226 decays to Pb-206 and radium-225 decays to Pb-209. During the decay processes three types of radiation—alpha (a), beta ((5), and gamma (y)—are emitted. 

Other uses are to produce phosphorescence and fluorescence in organic compounds and for scintillation screens on instruments used to detect radiation. Radium salts were used in the past to paint the dials of luminous clock faces that glow in the dark. 

White phosphorus occurs in nature in phosphate rock. It is insoluble in water and alcohol and will ignite spontaneously in air. It exhibits what is known as phosphorescence that is, it glows in the dark at room temperature. White phosphorus is poisonous and must be stored under water. 

Some phosphorus compounds glow in the dark as they emit light after absorbing radiation. This makes them useful in special fluorescent lights and the color screens of television sets and computers. 

Actinium is an extremely radioactive, silvery-white, heavy metal that glows in the dark with an eerie bluish hght. It decays rapidly which makes it difficult to study, given that it changes into thorium and francium through electron capmre and alpha decay. Its melting point is 1,051°C, its boding point is 3,198°C, and its density is 10.07g/cm. ... 

A milligram-scale preparation has been reported that used AcFj with Li metal as the reductaht (115). No X-ray diffraction data were obtained. The melting point was found to be 1325 50 K. The metal was observed to glow in the dark with a blue color (115). 

In 1669 Brandt collected 50 buckets of urine and allowed it to evaporate until it bred worms. He then boiled the urine to further concentrate it and kept the residue in his cellar until it turned black. Next he distilled the concentrated urine and collected the distillate under water in a flask, obtaining a transparent waxy substance. When this substance was removed from the water, it glowed in the dark and... 

White phosphorus ignites in air spontaneously. When placed on a paper, the paper catches fire after a short delay. It catches fire at about 35°C. At room temperature white phosphorus glows in the dark on exposure to air emitting faint green light. Such chemiluminescence is attributed to the oxidation of P4 molecules in the vapor phase in contact with the surface of solid phosphorus ... 

Promethium is identified by x-ray emission spectra, spark spectrum, and other spectroscopic methods. At extremely low concentrations, the element can be measured by ICP-MS. Also promethium and its salts can be detected from their pale—blue or greenish glow in the dark due to their radioactivity. Highly sensitive beta probes can be used for monitoring radioactive Pm-147. 

The successful transfer of recombinant DNA into plants was vividly illustrated by an experiment in which the luciferase gene from fireflies was introduced into the cells of a tobacco plant (Fig. 9-29)—a favorite plant for transformation experiments because its cells are particularly easy to transform with Agrobacterium. The potential of this technology is not limited to the production of glow-in-the-dark plants, of course. The same approach has been used to produce crop plants that are resistant to herbicides, plant viruses, and insect pests (Fig. 9-30). Potential benefits include increased yields and less need for environmentally harmful agricultural chemicals. 

In the laboratory, pure firefly luciferin and luciferase are used to measure minute quantities of ATP by the intensity of the light flash produced. As little as a few picomoles (10 12 mol) of ATP can be measured in this way. An enlightening extension of the studies in luciferase was the cloning of the luciferase gene into tobacco plants. When watered with a solution containing luciferin, the plants glowed in the dark (see Fig. 9-29). 

A few months after Roentgen announced his discovery of X rays, the French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852—1908) experimented to see if they were emitted by phosphorescent substances—those that glow in the dark after being exposed to bright light. One substance that appeared to confirm the idea that phosphorescence resulted in X rays was uranium. When... 

After two years of back-breaking work they reached their goal. One night they went to the shed in which they had been working. They opened the door and stepped in without putting on the lights. All around them, the containers that held the solutions of the new substance glowed in the dark They had discovered a new element — radium — a million times more active than uranium. 

In the 1920s, women working in a New Jersey factory painted watch faces with an element called radium that glowed in the dark. The women constantly straightened their paintbrush bristles between their lips to keep them pointed enough to draw the tiny numbers. A few years later, the women began to have strange sores, pains all... 

Figure 4.4 "The Radium Girls" were women in 1920s New Jersey who painted watch faces with radium, an element that glows in the dark. Because the women were in constant contact with the radioactive element, they experienced numerous health problems years later. Some even died because of radiation poisoning.

Natural actinides such as actinide, thorium, and especially uranium were already well known to chemists. Like other heavy elements, the actinides are very radioactive. Actinium itself is so radioactive that it glows in the dark. As Seaborg and others found... 

EET is observed in many diverse systems, including marine organisms that use EET to tune the color of their bioluminescence [18], giving them unique glow-in-the-dark patterns. EET is also used in man-made solar energy conversion devices that are based on molecular architectures, and is used to tweak pixel hue and saturation in polymer-based... 

U. S. Patent 5,876,995. The inventor claims a way of making glow-in-the-dark party drinks such as champagne. The glow is created by the interaction of luciferin and luciferase as in the bioluminescence process, which lights the firefly s tail. One way of achieving this is to clone the luciferase gene into the... 

When she blew her nose, her handkerchief glowed in the dark. The woman who made this statement in the early 1900s was one of several factory workers who were hired to paint clock and watch dials with luminous paint. 

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