Octarine

[bloodyrosemccoy]

You know you’re a serious science fiction writer when you find yourself wondering how to look up just what trace impurities in a gemstone would give it an ultraviolet color—so it’d appear colorless to us but be brilliantly shaded to some other species with a different visible spectrum.

Yes, dudes, I take this stuff seriously.

Granted, this may stem from when I was a kid and I would try my damndest to imagine completely new colors. I don’t think it ever quite worked, but I sure did work at it. But it turns out it’s not for lack of wiring, so there’s still hope!

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

<---- has the fourth cone mutation.

All it's done for me is make Hawii'an shirts really obnoxious.

[zimwifepgk.livejournal.com]

The title of your post makes me smile, because I didn't notice it until I read your last paragraph and thought, 'Sounds like what happens whenever I try to imagine what octarine looks like!' XD

You must learn a TON by researching these little details.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll do some more digging once my mineralogist friend gets online, but some minerals fluoresce under UV light - scheelite is a great example - it glows sky blue under shortwave UV, and sometimes if it has trace molybdenite it glows greenish. Natually, however, it comes in several colours including colourless. I know that's not exactly what you meant, but could it be useful?

As I said, I'll do some more digging on the subject and see what I can turn up. What gemstones were you thinking of, particularly, because whether or not you can get an element in a mineral depends on its molecular structure and whether or not said structure will bend enough to let the element of interest in ...