September 24, 2007
Having a blacklight in the kitchen is sort of interesting sometimes. It’s funny what weird foods glow in the blacklight (mustard). Today, I discovered something else that glows.
I was making a casserole, and I needed to crack three eggs into a mixing bowl. The first two were fine and normal. The third, however, was BRIGHT GREEN AND GLOWING SO MUCH IN THE BLACKLIGHT!! Never had that happen before. I wondered if it was rotten. I sniffed it tentatively, and it may have smelled a little off, but nothing overwhelming. Needless to say, all three eggs went into the garbage disposal, and I even got a new mixing bowl. I don’t know what the deal was, but never in my life has any egg previously glowed in the blacklight like that.
I’m sort of glad, because it didn’t smell, and if it wasn’t for the blacklight letting me know something wasn’t right, me & Clint could have eaten that toxic egg!!!!
Makes me nauseous just thinking about it.
September 24, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Aww, adventures in housewifeland!
I’ve eaten a bite of a rotten egg before. It only smells slightly off until you eat it, at which point…. Brushing your teeth will not fix your breath or the taste in your mouth. Not for hours.
I’d still probably have tried a nibble, though, because we do not know for sure that ALL non-rotten eggs don’t glow and that ALL glowing eggs are rotten. Not for sure.
Then again, I have to kiss that mouth.
September 24, 2007 at 7:59 pm
It was raw at the time of the discovery. I am not going to nibble a raw egg to see if it’s rotten. And I thought with rotten eggs, the smell is obvious. Dunno though, I’ve never purposely broken open a rotten egg.
Britt told me a trick to determine if an egg is rotten. If it floats in a glass of water, than it’s rotten. I didn’t run that test this time, because the eggs haven’t been in there that long. I guess I can just leave that last egg in there as long as possible, and then when it floats in the water, I can crack it open and see if it glows in the blacklight.
September 24, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I SAID “I have to kiss that mouth. :)”
Anyway — That’s a good idea.
FOR SCIENCE!!
September 24, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I would think a rotten egg goes sour on the inside, not so much the outside. If anything, I bet the egg got sprayed or something dripped on it accidentally. At worst (or best depending on angle), you would have turned into a mutant with super abilities like X-Ray vision or super human strength!
September 26, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Whoa, that is the weirdest food experience I’ve ever heard of!! I totally would have thrown it out, too.
I remember how blacklight makes even eyedrops glow. Pretty awesome.
September 26, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Oh yeah! Lots of weird things glow in the blacklight.
I broke our rec-room blacklight fixture recently and haven’t been having much luck fixing it. I broke one of the legs off, and I tried supergluing it, but that didn’t work because I wasn’t able to keep it pressed on in place long enough. So I tried supergluing it, and then duct taping it into place. That didn’t work. I tried just duct-taping it.. no luck. Clint finally just leaned it up against the wall, but then we remembered it was having power problems anyway. It’ll like spontaneously turn off. So maybe it’s time for a new one….
September 27, 2007 at 6:00 am
Hmm, I wouldn’t know where to get a new fixture for that…I’m guessing online might be a good option…
I’ve always wondered what exactly makes certain things glow in the blacklight. At first I just thought if something was white, then it would glow, but then I noticed other colored things would glow, too.
September 27, 2007 at 7:20 am
Anything that glows in the dark, also glows in the blacklight.
September 30, 2007 at 1:24 pm
One of the Pharmacy students at the Science Center is using a black light this week to show how to detect germs on your hands. My father once used blacklights similarly in detecting bacterial colonies in his studies.
There seems to be a lot of debate about detecting rotten eggs. I’m tempted to do some experiments, if it wasn’t such a gross thing to be testing. : )
October 2, 2007 at 8:09 am
Clint: But, some white shirts glow in blacklight, but DON’T glow in the dark. Uh oh, this is becoming one of those “if p, then q” statements from logic class:
If something glows in blacklight, then it MIGHT glow in the dark.
However, if something glows in the dark, then it DEFINITELY glows in blacklight.
Aaauughh!
October 2, 2007 at 8:53 am
Your statement is correct.
Usually bright neon colors glow in the blacklight. (Shocking pink, day-glo yellow, etc.) White usually glows too.
October 2, 2007 at 8:54 am
Right Parthena. I meant what I said, and said what I meant, and not the opposite
October 2, 2007 at 10:08 am
Actually, when it comes to white clothes, it’s generally the laundry detergent that makes them glow, not the fabric itself.
October 2, 2007 at 10:45 am
How do we know this? (just curious)
October 2, 2007 at 10:46 am
Chriggy: interesting, I didn’t know that! I wonder if it’s toothpaste that makes some people’s teeth glow in blacklight. *muses* But then, why would the whites of my eyes glow, too? Maybe I’m just possessed.
October 2, 2007 at 11:24 am
Pretty much anything white glows in the blacklight.
October 2, 2007 at 11:33 am
Yeah, speaking of laundry detergent, sometimes my jeans have streaks of laundry detergent on them that glow. It looks like I’m a slob, but really it’s clean!
October 2, 2007 at 12:34 pm
And on the laundry detergent front….
One of the experiments done here in Blacksburg on the Smart Road had to do with blacklight headlights. They were hoping that by illuminating the detergent in clothes, drivers would see pedestrians better. It didn’t quite work out and I believe one of the employees mentioned that not all laundry detergents glow anymore.
At the very least, the car with the special headlights looked sorta neat.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgaw/1243087299/in/set-72157601677369424/
October 2, 2007 at 1:39 pm
From visual observation, I’ve seen that not all white glows in blacklight. Really depends on the chemical compositions of the material. When it comes to your “neon” colors, they tend to glow because the same property that makes them glow gives them that “neon” appearance. Basically photons (especially in the UV spectrum) excite the chemicals in such a way that an energy shift in the electron takes place. When the electron drops down to its normal energy state, the energy is released in the visible light spectrum. Same as glow in the dark.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/black-light.htm
October 2, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Cool link!
February 11, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I had another blacklight egg about a week ago. I threw it away, and then Clint told me that I should have cooked it. Eww.
March 14, 2008 at 9:21 pm
The eggs glow because of salmonella. Salmonella is a bacteria that produces a fluorescent compound. Don’t worry about the eggs killing you though, as long as you don’t eat it raw and cook well, you’ll be fine.
March 15, 2008 at 12:18 am
See? I was right to be paranoid about blacklight eggs!
I don’t want to risk not cooking it well as we all know I’m not that good of a cook.
March 15, 2008 at 2:14 pm
If it’s not runny, it’s cooked well enough.
March 15, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I guess you’re right, but I still can’t help but think if I know there’s salmonella in it, then why risk eating it?