Edit: Looks like I might be off on this.
If you're in Chicago, the river will be green this weekend. For that, you can thank fluorescein:
Fluorescein is strongly fluorescent - if it absorbs a photon, 97 times out of 100, it will be re-emitted as light (see yesterday's entry on fluorene for more information).
Fluorescein is a phenomenally useful fluorophore; it finds use in biology to fluorescently tag molecules, as well in medical imaging.
Happy St. Patrick's day!
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Edit: Looks like I might be off on this.
CNN has a clip in the rotation right now about the yearly tradition of dying the Chicago river green for St. Patrick's day. They're saying it's a "secret orange dye." Well, let me put it through the decomplicator for you.
As you might remember from last…
I posted Sunday and last year about the putative use of fluoresciein in the Chicago river on St. Patrick's day. As some readers pointed out, they apparently aren't using it anymore.
I don't even have a guess what they're using, then. The reason the solid dye is orange is because it absorbs blue-…
Fluorene is a very simple aromatic hydrocarbon. It's often used in physical chemistry classes to teach an important lesson about fluorescence: rigidity matters:
Fluorene is essentially a rigidified biphenyl:
When a molecule absorbs a photon of light, it carries around an extra packet of energy;…
Thursday through Sunday, I happened to be in Chicago for the Society of Surgical Oncology annual meeting. Leave it to surgeons to schedule a meeting the weekend before St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.
In Chicago.
That means the drinking in the city started Friday after business hours and continued all…
Thanks! I really like this site.