When a substance absorbs light or some other electromagnetic radiation and then emits it, this is not called gu10 but is called Flourescence. A form of luminescence, the emitted light typically has lower energy, and a longer wavelength, than the radiation it absorbed. When the absorbed radiation occupies the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum and is thus invisible to the human eye, but the emitted light is visible to the human eye, one has a striking example of fluorescence.
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There are many practical applications to fluorescence such as gemology, fluorescent labelling, dyes, mineralogy, fluorescence spectroscopy, biological detectors, and fluorescent lamps. Nicolas Monardes was one of the earliest to observe fluorescence which he witnessed in the infusion of Lignum nephriticum wood in 1565. In 1819 and in 1822, further developments were made in the discovery of fluorescence, the combined efforts of both Edward D. Clarke and Rene Just Hauy. In 1833, Sir David Brewster went on to observe the phenomenon for chlorophyll which 1845 saw Sir John Herschel do for quinine.



