From newborn babies to knowledgeable scientists people are fascinated with glowing objects that can light up a room without a visible bulb match or battery. Scientists especially chemists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what makes glow-in-the-dark objects glow and they’ve discovered that this light is unlike typical light sources.

Typical light sources called incandescent heat cause hot atoms to collide with each other which creates energy resulting in light and heat. In contrast glow-in-the-dark light comes from a luminescent light source which absorbs energy from something other than heat and is released as light. So no these light-up toys don’t shine because of nothing. There’s a lot of chemical activity going on backstage that we never even think about.