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fluorescence

fluorescence

5 6.7
Light appears when something takes in other light, like minerals or jellyfish
  • noun
  • /flɔˈrɛsəns/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fluorescencia
  • The artist used special paints that displayed a bright fluorescence when exposed to black light.

The X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, that's the next step.

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Examples

  • The NIST observations of the fluorescence of rubidium in a one-dimensional molasses are probably the simplest to interpret.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Chlorophyll fluorescence: In vivo chlorophyll fluorescence was measured using a Handy-PEA chlorophyll fluorometer (Hansatech Instruments).

    Academic text (2015)
  • Well, we're gonna do it until we finish... and then we're gonna move on to the fluorescence work.

  • So how am I going to get fluorescence that looks bound?

  • You tune it to a fluorescence line and you stop.

  • Gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence were analyzed on a typical sunny day.

    Academic text (2015)
  • Yes, it was found out by X-ray fluorescence that the robe was in Prussian blue.

  • See rare gems as well as minerals with unusual properties such as vivid colors, fluorescence, magnetism, and radioactivity.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Images of p65 cellular distribution were captured with a fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan).

    Academic text (2015)
  • Tissue sections probed with an orange fluorescence-labelled DNA probe for the X-chromosome sequence and green for the Y-chromosome sequence.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

luminescence
vsfluorescence
  • Specialized
2 7.0

Light that a material gives off without heat

is the subtype that specifically follows absorption of light or radiation
photoluminescence
vsfluorescence
  • Specialized
8.4

Light a material gives out after it takes in light

is the general term for light emission after absorbing electromagnetic radiation

Compounds

5.6

A way to use light to see glowing parts of tiny samples like cells

How Long

phosphorescence
  • Specialized
1 9.9
fluorescence
  • Specialized
5 6.7

Surface Forms

fluorescence singular
fluorescences plural

Morphology

fluorescence = fluoresce (transparent) = fluoresc + ence

Formed by a standard noun-forming suffix added to the verb 'fluoresce', so the meaning (the process/state of fluorescing) is directly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Fluorescence comes from the root fluor-, linked to the glowing mineral fluorite and to the idea 'to flow' that you see in fluid, plus the ending -escence, meaning 'becoming'. So think of fluorite 'glowing' under a blacklight: fluorescence is the light a material 'gives off' after it 'takes in' light.