April 2, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
http://www.nvo.com/flamingo/ is a really glitzy site with lots of color but little scientific explanation.

http://www.riskreactor.com/UV_Products/Fluorescent_Pigments.htm gives a little more explanation. But I didnt' run across any chemical structures, just trade names for the dyes that fluoresce. To be colored, a compound has to absorb light of some visible wavelengths and reflect other wavelengths (which our eyes then detect.) A fluorescent compound absorbs light, but then radiates some of the absorbed energy as visible light, and our eyes detect _that_, in addition to whatever light is just reflected from the sample.