How To: Make a tomato glow in the dark (FAKE?)

Make a tomato glow in the dark (FAKE?)

F for FAKE. This video has been labeled a "Faux-To". Commonly contested as bogus science, we believe this video to be a hoax. What's your opinion? Comment below.

Make a tomato glow in the dark using three household chemicals and the step-by-step instructions in this how-to video. A Shooting Eggs Production, this video tutorial could also teach you how to make your own glow sticks! You need a syringe, hydrogen peroxide, matches and bleach!

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58 Comments

good

BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT!!!! Hey use the injector from an old inkjet refill kit!!!

Nice. All that money spent on making Genetically Modified glowing animals? This could be the way forward at a fraction of the cost.

Glowing rats anyone?

This would kill them, try making this and injecting enough to make you glow see what happens.

Cool. Can't wait for the growing season. A burning bush!

Cool!!.... but how much bleach... which of the two layers do you collect.... and do you need pure hydrogen peroxide or will the 3% or so in the brown bottled stuff work?

you collect the top part.

dunno, looks fake

good trick! I wonder how long the glowing effect last?

the glowing tomato from Springfield!

has anyone tried it? wht was the outcome/?

it should work

how come it didnt work for me

Can you make your meat glow with this technique?

you need to collect the top layer of liquid to inject...the 3% stuff will work but the stronger the better for the peroxide....and the meat would work but you'd be better off using the chems as a rub rather than injecting cuz you need a space for the chemicals to meet

were can you find those kind of matches?

Doesn't work. Tried it. Are they claiming that tomatoes have CYALUME or LUMINOL in them? Kind of a bummer considering Shooting Eggs Productions usually has good info.

JAMES AND THE GLOWING TOMATO! XD

where the HELL am i supposed to get a syringe? the hippie from the dark, scary alley?

i have a ton, my friend had them left over from fertility treatments...

aw you cannot eat them?... jk

aw you can;t eat them

the whole apple tree is lighting up in the night now... YAY!!!!!

bought 2 kinds of non safety matches neither glows in black light. hmmm

Mosty likely you bought the kind high in sulphur and not phosphor

Not working. Please, make me know what kind of bleach.

Use orgarnic peroxide

oh yea im only 13 yrs old but i tried it!

its so coool!

the tomato glowed and i go money from my clasm8s!

we made a bet !

I highly doubt that..this video is completly fake. ?

Total fake, there are very few things in the world that produce visible light by chemical reactions. The most common ones are luminol, singlet oxygen, and peroxylates (cyalume). Neither matches nor a tomato contain any of these things. The lesser common ones are so weak as to be invisible to a household camera.

In short, whatever this is. It's not working like the video suggests, thus it's fake.

peroxylates? umm tomatoes contain oxalic acid in good amounts, and if you used strong enough hydrogen peroxide, I think there is a chance of this creating a peroxylate. My guess is that the bleach and high phosphorus match heads are used more as an aid in the natural glowing of the peroxide/oxalic acid reaction either in the form of a catalyst or other wise as a phosphorescent substance that would cause light generated in the uv end of the spectrum to become visible. I haven't researched the chemistry behind this, just positing a hypothesis on how this might be plausible.

Signed,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Engineer

I am chemist, I have thoroughly researched the chemistry behind this and hydrogen peroxide along with oxalic acid do not form the necessary 1,2-dioxetanedione intermediate needed to produce chemiluminescence by the peroxylate mechanism. This is because the "-OH" part of the oxalic acid is a poor leaving group (organic chemistry term). Bleach destroys the oxalic acid before it can form the needed 1,2-dioxetanedione.

I know it sounds weird that you might be thinking i'm some liar or raving lunatic but i can support this with some citations in peer-reviewed journals:

Demonstrations of Chemiluminescence - Frank McCapra, METHODS IN ENZYMOLOGY, 2000, VOL. 305, 633-659

Richard Bos, Neil W. Barnett, Gail A. Dyson, Kieran F. Lim, Richard A. Russell and Simon P. Watson (2003). "Studies on the mechanism of the peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence reaction: Part 1. Confirmation of 1,2-dioxetanedione as an intermediate using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy". Analytica Chimica Acta 502 (2): 141–147

I didn't forget about that oxalic acid.

I've done chemiluminescent demonstrations myself and have a video myself where i make a peroxylate. type "Make TCPO" into the search to find it.

i tried it and it didnt work DX

how long do u think the glow would last?

lol wonder how many people die from eating tomatoes with bleech in them

i DONT think its a FAKE
(pretty damn confusing message)

where can i get hydrogen peroxide?

I say, all the people who say FAKE, have you even tried it yet? If not, then u are a #$%@tard and should be eradicated immediately. Not to say that i've tried it. it seems a bit like the glowing mountain dew... whick CAN be done, but not in tthe way the videos say.

mine worked but i just cheated and used led's

ah a toxic tomato, prehaps i should give one to the neighbours saying its a magic potato from the vegetable/fruit king and eating it will make u immortal

IT WORKS !!! :D thanks shooting egg productions :) i knew u wouldnt let me down :P :D

Is it possible to work experience other things?

of course it works it was my scince fair project a couple years back its a simple chemical reaction

I like cemestry. however how long will this last, as the reactions will lose all thiere energy becuase they are losing heat, light energy. so in other words how long will this glow last? thanks

Oh wait it said dont eat em?... eeehhh

DUDEEEEEE THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! I did strung a whole bunch of these together into a chain, LOL> They dont hold a light for more than 12 hours tho...

I'm geussing red phosphorus

awsome!!!!!!!!!!!

If this video isint fake, I would recommend safety goggles, one of those little white masks for the nose and mouth, and gloves. Be careful around chemicals, especially when mixing. It looks like a cool video. I just dont have the syringe to try it

How do i do this cuz i cant watch the video for some reason so can someone tell me how to do it?

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