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2010

jan
• tanja's black light dance party

ARCHIVE
2009

dec
• tootsie roll wrappers colors and flavors

nov
• stephen vitiello's four color sound

oct
• atmospheric perspective

sept
• a rainbow of antioxidants
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january
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day-ta-bio

 

tanja_glass_gin-tonic_glow

 

black light and glow rings

Using black light, the gin and tonic glows in the dark.
Photo taken of Tanja by Jeff in January, 2009

The colors we see are determined by the wavelength of light energy. Unlike some insects, humans can only view the spectrum from red to violet. However, other invisible “colors” exist above and below this spectrum.

glass_glow  

The “color” above red is called infra-red and the color below violet is called ultraviolet. Ultraviolet light will cause fluorescent or phosphorescent pigments to fluoresce, emitting visible light. – Glow Inc. Link


The black light experiment happens again at Tanja's annual party with another gin and tonic in January 2010.

glow_rings  

Party glow rings.

The glow light is made of two parts which when mixed together create the chemical reaction which makes them glow.
4 g sodium carbonate
0.2 g luminol
0.5 g ammonium carbonate
0.4 g copper sulfate pentahydrate
approx. 1 litre of distilled water.
50 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide.

Glow sticks work by a chemical reaction called “chemiluminescence” which causes light to be generated. (That's a trivia question for some party games!) By breaking up the word "chemiluminescence" into 2 parts, chemi and luminescence we can better understand. Luminescence is emission of light not caused by a rise in temperature (the object emitting light stays cold). The light is released by atoms returning from "excited" (charged) state to normal "ground" state. It means, an object which glows, first must absorb energy to get into "excited state." That energy will be released (in form of light) by the object returning to the ground state of energy. – China Bessen Glow Technology Ltd. Link

    to read more on this topic, click here on entry for
October Days, 2008
about: green fluorescent protein