Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The emission of electromagnetic radiation, especially of visible light, stimulated in a substance by the absorption of incident radiation and persisting only as long as the stimulating radiation is continued.
  • noun The property of emitting such radiation.
  • noun The radiation so emitted.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The property possessed by some transparent substances of becoming self-luminous while they are exposed to the direct action of light-rays. See phosphorescence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chemistry, Optics) A luminescence emitted by certain substances due to the absorption of radiation at one wavelength, and the almost instantaneous re-emission of radiation at another, usually longer wavelength. The re-radiation stops almost as soon as the incident radiation is halted, thus distinguishing this phenomenon from phosphorescence, in which re-radiation of light may continue for some time after the incident radiation is halted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle
  • noun The light so emitted

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun light emitted during absorption of radiation of some other (invisible) wavelength

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[fluor(spar) + –escence.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined 1852 by physicist George Stokes from fluorspar + -escence

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Examples

  • In this assay, red blood cells (RBCs) are incubated with a dye, EMA, and the fluorescence is measured in comparison to a control.

    Immunology Lab 2010

  • Additionally, she offered her expertise in fluorescence and lighting measurements in order to improve the method and distinguish between alpha and H-particles, an essential issue in the Cambridge-Vienna controversy.

    Trafficking Materials and Gendered Experimental Practices: Radium Research in Early 20th Century Vienna 2007

  • The ability to precisely control fluorescence is particular useful when tracking particle movement in a crowded environment.

    Archive 2005-10-01 2005

  • This effect is likely due to selective photobleaching of the red chromophores in DsRed, resulting in observable fluorescence from the green state.

    Archive 2005-10-01 2005

  • Because glucose displaces the fluorescent molecules, the level of fluorescence is high when bodily glucose levels are low.

    Boing Boing: September 1, 2002 - September 7, 2002 Archives 2002

  • The probe laser beam could easily penetrate the shock waves without perturbation, and we could image just the fluorescence from the laser-excited ultracold molecules in the zone of silence.

    Richard E. Smalley - Autobiography 1997

  • They fall through a sheet of laser light and the resulting fluorescence is recorded.

    The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997 1997

  • The phenomenon received close attention a little earlier, particularly after it was found that the fluorescence is strongly polarized by placing a polarizer between the lamp and the resonance chamber.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1966 - Presentation Speech 1972

  • The system can scan a 96-well microplate, decode barcodes, measure label fluorescence, and display results in only 40 seconds per microwell.

    Business Wire Travel News 2010

  • - In planning multiple label fluorescence staining protocols for widefield and laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy experiments, the judicious choice of probes is paramount in obtaining the best target signal while simultaneously minimizing bleed-through artifacts.

    unknown title 2009

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