Amazing demo of the world's glowiest glow-in-the-dark paint

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/21/amazing-demo-of-the-worlds-glowiest-glow-in-the-dark-paint.html

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I used to take my daughter to a children’s museum in Holyoke, MA. They have a room with a glow-in-the-dark wall that gets lit up by periodic strobing so you can save your shadow till the next one. I could also write and draw on it with my pocket flash and took many forgettable digitals.

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Be careful - that kind of tech can turn people into zombies (at least in my family).

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Former science-center exhibit tech here. This type of exhibit is getting harder to produce, as the new glow-in-the-dark materials are so persistent in their glow that the refresh rate is hours rather than seconds. It is getting harder to source the old-style glow materials as they are being supplanted by these new products that have a crazy-long glow-time. They will still work, but you will see many layers of shadow-ghosts of your visitors rather than a unique and distinct image per cycle.

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A weird effect that I wish Action Labs incorporated into their video:
A green laser will do exactly what you expect it to.
A red laser will “turn off” the glowing surface.
This is due to “quenched fluorescence” This reddit thread has the best explanation that I have found so far: Why does a laser create a dark spot on phosphorescent material

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It occurs to me belatedly that the LED light was great for drawing features onto my silhouette, and my daughter’s.

I am saddened to think that it’s possible to have too much glow time, but your words are clear.

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I have yet to watch the entire video, but was there any mention about any toxic outgassing — especially when enclosed in a 100% glow-paint environment?

BTW: When I was a kid, I used Kenner’s ‘glow juice’ paint on my flying saucer model (from The Invaders sci-fi series). All portions to be lit (circumferential running lights and hemispheric thruster modules) got the juice. Joy!

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Just a FYI:

I used some of the ultraglow powder to make stars and moons/planets for GirlChild’s room, and the new glow stuff is so persistent that when I wake up at 6am for work, everything’s still glowing, fainter of course, but still putting out reasonable glow.

I’ve also made glow scarabs with a little silicon “cupcake topper” mold.

An ounce of this stuff goes pretty far when mixed into resin.

This is the company I like:

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I have a purple laser, what will that do?

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@AndreaJames @orenwolf the link labeled “LIT pigment” is actually the squirrel photographer video from another article, and the link labeled “reviews” is a duplicate of the “ultra-black room” link

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Fixed! Thanks for the head’s up!

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