Fluorescence within a diamond is pretty cool, but...
"Hey look Ma! That diamond is radio active!"

Might not be what you want to hear when you present your engagement ring to your fiancé over dinner in a dark restaurant with fancy lighting, or walking through a neighborhood aquarium or poster shop, unless you are aware that the diamond you purchased is fluorescent.   Personally we think that the phenomenon of “fluorescence” in a diamond is pretty cool so long as you understand what it is and are not caught off guard by it.   A few years ago we were taking a tour of the Toronto Needle with a group of other tourists and part of the tour includes a walkway illuminated by black light and we ended up conducting an impromptu lesson on fluorescence within diamonds when a few ladies within the group freaked out because their diamonds were suddenly glowing white, yellow, blue and green!  Panic stricken concern about whether their diamonds were real or had been switched by their jeweler abound and we quickly set their minds at east by explaining that we were diamond dealers and low and behold our diamonds fluoresced blue!  Everybody was having a great time playing with their fluorescent diamonds under the lights when the tour guide reprimanded us by reminding us that this was actually her tour and not a gemology class.  The nerve.

Approximately one third of gem quality diamonds are luminescent and luminesce blue when exposed to UV light. In most cases, the luminescence will stop when the UV light source is removed; this phenomenon is known as fluorescence. Diamonds fluoresce in both long and short wave UV light, however they tend to fluoresce more intensely when subjected to long wave UV light. Fluorescence in diamonds merely the result of boron molecules being excited by ultraviolet light which transfers energy to the molecules so that they fluoresce white, blue, green, yellow, and red. The same concept is used in light sticks, but we think the effect is way cooler in diamonds because it is the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon.

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