Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fluorescence |
FluorescenceNoun1. Light emitted during absorption of radiation of some other (invisible) wavelength. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Aerospace | Emission of light or other radiant energy as a result of and only during absorption of radiation of a different wavelength from some other source. Also called photoluminescence. See luminescence. Compare phosphorescence. (references) |
Health | The property of emitting radiation while being irradiated. The radiation emitted is usually of longer wavelength than that incident or absorbed, e.g., a substance can be irradiated with invisible radiation and emit visible light. X-ray fluorescence is used in diagnosis. (references) |
Mining | A. The emission of visible light by a substance exposed to ultraviolet light. It is a useful property in examining well cuttings for oil shows and in prospecting for some minerals b. The absorption of radiation at one wavelength, or a range of wavelengths, and its reemission as radiation of longer, visible wavelengths. c. A type of luminescence in which the emission of light ceases when the external stimulus ceases; also, the light so produced d. Quantized electromagnetic radiation as a material drops from a higher to a lower energy state. Fluorescence stops when the excitation energystops. CF:phosphorescence; luminescence. (references) |
Physics | Property of emitting radiation as the result of, and only during, the absorption of radiation from some other source. Source: European Union. (references) |
| The re-emission of absorbed energy in the form of photons, usually of lower energy than the incident photons, without any appreciable time delay. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Space | The phenomenon of emitting light upon absorbing radiation of an invisible wavelength. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Fluorescence is an optical phenomenon in which a molecule absorbs a high-energy photon, and re-emits it as a lower-energy (longer-wavelength) photon, the energy difference between the absorbed and emitted photons ending up as molecular vibrations (heat). Usually the absorbed photon is in the ultraviolet, and the emitted light (luminescence) is in the visible range. Fluorescence is named after the mineral fluorspar (calcium fluoride), which exhibits this phenomenon.
There are many natural and synthetic compounds that exhibit fluorescence, and they have a number of applications:
Lighting
The common fluorescent tube relies on fluorescence. Inside the glass tube is a partial vacuum and a small amount of mercury. An electric discharge in the tube causes the mercury atoms to emit light. The emitted light is in the ultraviolet range and is invisible, and also harmful to living organisms, so the tube is lined with a coating of a fluorescent material, called the phosphor, which absorbs the UV and re-emits visible light.Recently, "white LEDs" (Light Emitting Diodes) have become available which work through a similar process. Typically, the actual light-emitting semiconductor produces light in the blue part of the spectrum, which strikes a phosphor compound deposited on a reflector; the phosphor fluoresces in the orange part of the spectrum, the combination of the two colors producing a net effect of apparently white light.
Biochemistry & Medicine
There is a wide range of applications for fluorescence in this field. Large biological molecules can have a fluorescent chemical group attached by a chemical reaction, and the fluorescence of the attached tag enables very sensitive detection of the molecule. Examples
- automated sequencing of DNA by the chain termination method; each of four different chain termninating bases has its own specific fluorescent tag. As the labelled DNA molecules are separated, the fluorescent label is excited by a UV source, and the identity of the base terminating the molecule is identified by the wavelength of the emitted light.
- DNA detection: the compound ethidium bromide, when free to change its conformation in solution, has very little fluorescence. Ethidium bromide's fluorescence is greatly enhanced when it binds to DNA, so this compound is very useful in visualising the location of DNA fragments in agarose gel electrophoresis
- The DNA chip
- Immunology: An antibody has a fluorescent chemical group attached, and the sites (e.g. on a microscopic specimen) where the antibody has bound can be seen, and even quantitated, by the fluorescence.
- something about that fluorescent compound that binds to Ca++ so that changes in intracellular calcium can be viewed in real time with a fluorescent microscope???
- FACS (Fluorescent activated cell sorting)
- Fluorescent proteins such as the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as reporters for any number of biological events including such things as sub-cellular localization and level of expression
Gemmology, Mineralogy and Forensics
Gemstones, Minerals, fibers and many other materials which may be encountered in forensics or with relationshp to various collectibles may have a distinctive fluorescence or may fluoresce differently under short wave ultraviolet, long wave ultra violet or X-rays.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fluorescence."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| FLIM | English | Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Courier GulchX-ray fluorescence spectrometer being used to analyze how many heavy metals from mining dump are presentShoshone Field OfficeUSRDUpper Snake River District. Credit: Tim Fuller. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | X-ray fluorescence is used in diagnosis. (references) | |
Promising new diagnostic techniques are emerging, including fiber-optic transillumination and light and laser fluorescence. (references) | ||
Unbound antibody can be washed away and areas where antigen is present can be visualized as fluorescent-apple-green areas using a fluorescence microscope. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Fluorescence" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.26% of the time. "Fluorescence" is used about 136 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.26% | 135 | 27,360 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.74% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 136 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "fluorescence": fluorescence dye ♦ fluorescence immunoassay ♦ fluorescence microscopy ♦ Fluorescence Polarization ♦ Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "fluorescence": fluorescence-activated. | |
Ending with "fluorescence": epi-fluorescence, hplc-fluorescence. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "fluorescence"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fluoreshencë, ndriçim fluoreshent, dritëlëshueshmëri. (various references) | |
Arabic | اللصف الاستشعاع. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | флуоресценция. (various references) | |
Chinese | 荧光, 熒光 . (various references) | |
Czech | fluorescence. (various references) | |
Danish | fluorescens. (various references) | |
Dutch | fluorescentie (bloom, bloom of oil, petroleum bloom). (various references) | |
Finnish | fluoresenssi. (various references) | |
French | fluorescence. (various references) | |
German | fluoreszenz. (various references) | |
Greek | φθορισμός (phosphorescence). (various references) | |
Hebrew | נגיהה. (various references) | |
Hungarian | fluoreszkálás (cast), fluoreszcencia. (various references) | |
Italian | fluorescenza. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 蛍光. (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | けいこう (admiration, adoration, aroma, carrying, fame, fragrance, go right ahead, honor, inclination, love of virtue, mouth of a chicken, oral, perfume, reverence, tendency, trend). (various references) | |
Korean | 형광. (various references) | |
Manx | stroo-hoilshey. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uorescenceflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fluorescência (bloom, bloom of oil, luminescence, petroleum bloom, phosphorescence). (various references) | |
Romanian | fluorescenţã. (various references) | |
Russian | флуоресценция. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | fluorescencija. (various references) | |
Spanish | fluorescencia. (various references) | |
Swedish | fluorescens. (various references) | |
Thai | การเรืองแสง. (various references) | |
Turkish | floresan (fluorescent), flüorışı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | флуоресценція. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | phát huỳnh quang. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fluorescence": fluorescences. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "fluorescence": immunofluorescence. (additional references) | |
Words containing "fluorescence": immunofluorescences. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fluorescence" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: flourescence, fluorescences, fluorescene, fluorescens, fluorescine, fluorexcence, Fluorscence. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-c-e-e-e-f-l-n-o-r-s-u" | |
-1 letter: florescence. | |
-2 letters: feculences, refluences. | |
-3 letters: conferees, counselee, enclosure, feculence, florences, fluorenes, fluoresce, refluence. | |
-4 letters: coenures, conferee, encloser, enforces, ensorcel, fleecers, florence, flounces, fluorene, foreseen, frounces, lucences, lucernes, refences, scornful, sneerful. | |
-5 letters: censure, cloners, closure, coenure, coerces, colures, concurs, confers, confuse, cornels, coulees, counsel, crenels, creoles, enclose, encores, enforce, feelers, fencers, ferules, fleecer, fleeces, flenser, floccus. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-c-e-e-e-f-l-n-o-r-s-u" | |
+1 letter: fluorescences. | |
+5 letters: counterinfluences. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
