The coolest part? The grape flavor Jolly Rancher is phosphorescent, meaning that it continues to give off fluorescent light after I turn off the UV light. To see phosphorescence I had to switch out my big 395 nm flashlight for a shorter-wavelength 365 nanometer light.
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]There's also bonus content for paid supporters (thanks so much for helping pay my blog bill!). This time the bonus post is courtesy of my cat Neon, who sabotaged the Jolly Rancher photoshoot.
https://www.aiweirdness.com/bonus-neon-photobombs-the-jolly-rancher-photos/
Okay wow I was so focused on the fluorescent dyes that it didn't even occur to me the phosphorescence could be coming from the GRAPE FLAVOR.
A tumblr reader pointed out that methyl anthranilate, naturally occurring in concord grapes, is phosphorescent in "low-temperature glasses". Emission maximum of 420 nanometers (a blue-violet) and lifetime of 1.3 seconds matches up nicely with what the grape jolly ranchers are doing.
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@wendinoakland @glasspusher @janellecshane add mystery dum-dums to the list
@janellecshane @blog That’s some nice transmission rendering!
I should note that the dyes in Jolly Ranchers are also fluorescent under visible light, which is why their colors look so bright.