Glowing for a bowl.

Brunswick Lanes, Fairlawn, N.J., sometime after midnight--The middle-aged bowlers have headed home to make room for a younger, hipper crowd. Suddenly, the lights go out, laser beams flash, and smoke machines pump fog around a sparkling disco ball. Dance music blasts from the sound system. Then, the lanes start to shimmer a sea blue, the Pins turn purple, and the balls glow neon pink, orange, and yellow.

This is not your grandma's Tuesday-night bowling league. It's than 250 U.S. bowling centers owned by the Brunswick Corporation are scoring big with this new craze. Fifty AMF bowling centers I have their own version, known as "Xtreme Bowling."

Whatever you call it, glow-bowling's popularity has been glowing--er, growing--with junior high and high school kids since it premiered in 1995. And that's a crowd that generally doesn't consider bowling a wild night on the town.

"I never really went bowling until I saw this. It's cool," says 16-year-old Stacey Richardson. Adds Vinnie Correi, 17, "My friends and I come every weekend."

DARK ALLEYS?

How does an ordinary bowling center turn itself into a groovy, glow-in-the-dark bowl 'n' boogie disco?

First, Brunswick installs several rows of black lights above the lanes and pins. "Black light isn't really black, it's invisible," says Bahadir Karuv, a physics teacher at the Academy for the Advancement of Science in Hackensack, N.J. Invisible light? That's right!

Light is nothing more than energy traveling as waves. Different colors of light have different amounts of energy. But our eyes can detect only a small range of light energy--the rainbow of colors called the visible spectrum. There L are many waves that have more or less energy, but we can't see them (see diagram, below).?

The light produced by "black" lights is called ultraviolet (UV) light. It has more energy than violet light at the high-energy end of the visible spectrum. When the black lights are on in a Cosmic Bowling center, you can't see any light coming from them. But the alleys, pins, and balls shine in "neon" colors.

GLOW WITH THE FLOW

The glow comes from the effect UV light has on chemicals in the pins, balls, and lanes. The lanes, for example, are covered with a clear plastic sheet, much like a giant piece of Scotch tape. The plastic in the sheet, as well as the plastic in the balls and pins, contains chemicals that are fluorescent.

Karuv explains: "The atoms in the chemicals absorb the high-energy UVwaves from the black lights." But atoms with extra energy are unstable. So, they emit, or give off, the extra energy as glowing, colored light.

Each fluorescent chemical absorbs and emits different amounts of energy. These amounts determine the color you see. So, depending on the chemical used, the plastic glows a different color. Once an atom gets rid of all its extra energy, it's able to absorb more UV waves, and the glowing process begins again.

Some common materials like tooth enamel, organic dyes, and some detergents are fluorescent, too. They appear intensely white in the presence of black lights. So, if you head to Cosmic Bowling, wear your whitest shirt and smile a lot!

But what about those heinous bowling shoes? Not to worry! Brunswick plans to introduce a line of fluorescent shoes this summer. Then you'll have no excuse not to hit the lanes.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHAT ELSE GLOWS?

FLASHY SIGNS

The glass tubes that make up the words of "neon" signs are filled with colorless gases. When electricity passes through the tubes, it gives the gas atoms a jolt of energy. As the atoms shed that excess energy, they glow a certain color, depending on which gas is used. True neon signs, containing pure neon gas, glow cherry-red.

FIRE 'EM UP FLIES

Fireflies flash their glow-in-the dark abdomens to attract mates. The energy for their bioluminescent glow comes from a chemical reaction. Energy given off by the reaction is absorbed by cells in light organs beneath the fly's transparent abdomen. The atoms then release the extra energy as light.

Many fish, squid, jellyfish, and bacteria also glow to attract mates or prey, to light their way, or to frighten predators. Most shine greenish-yellow, but some can glow blue, white, or even red.

DE-LIGHT-FUL DIALS

Impress your friends and family: The next time you light up your Indiglo (TM) watch, tell 'em how it works! When you press the "light" button, electrical energy from the watch battery is converted (with the help of a tiny computer chip) to a higher-energy form. Zinc sulfide atoms on the watch face absorb the extra energy, then release it instantly in a blue-green luminescent glow.

GLOWING DECALS

You've probably seen objects that glow in the dark after you hold them under a regular light bulb. These objects--like T-shirt decals or the stick-on stars you put on your bedroom ceiling--aren't fluorescent. They're phosphorescent. Phosphorescent atoms absorb and emit energy like fluorescent atoms. But phosphorescent atoms get their UV rays from regular lightbulbs or sunlight, not from black lights. They also hold onto the energy longer and emit it over a longer period of time. So, even in total darkness, you can still see the glow.

RELATED ARTICLE: Time to Glow

Does the duration of light exposure affect the glow time or brightness of a phosphorescent toy? Try this experiment.

WHAT YOU NEED:

one small phosphorescent toy, like a glow-in-the dark star, rubber animal, or sticker

* paper bay

* a completely dark room

* light source (a desk lamp works great)

* digital watch with a light

* graph paper

WHAT TO DO:

1. Place the toy in the paper bag.

2. Darken the room.

3. Take the toy out of the bag and shine the light on the toy for 1 second. As you do this, note the start time to the nearest minute. Record this time.

4. Place the toy on the floor of the dark room. Stand over it. Can you see it glowing? Describe its brightness. When you can't see it glowing anymore from this standing position, put it back in the bag and record the stop time to the nearest minute.

5. Subtract the start time from the stop time to determine the total glow time. Record your observations about the object's brightness.

6. Repeat Steps 2 to 4, but now illuminate the toy for 2 seconds.

7. Repeat Steps 2 to 4 three more times, each time increasing the lighting time by one second.

CONCLUSION:

On graph paper, plot light-exposure duration vs. total glow time. What's the relationship between duration of light exposure and the glow time and/or brightness of a phosphorescent object? What do your results suggest about the number of atoms that are absorbing and releasing light energy?

DON'T STOP NOW:

Is there a limit on the length of time or how brightly the toy will glow? Continue your experiment with longer light-exposure times to find out. What other variables affect the glow of a phosphorescent object? Design other experiments to test the effects of these variables.