Could fluorescence quenching be used for making 3D images?

[miraiw]

Looking at the image from this wikipedia article, it looks like there's a selective fluorescing of the quinine dependent on the presence of chrolide ions in the solution.

If the concentration of chloride ions in a solution could be controlled into a particular shape, shining a violet laser on the solution would show the shape, yes? How possible is it to control precisely concentrations of particular in a solution? I've not read anything about it, but I can't tell if it's not possible or just isn't done.

 

[Andy Resnick]

It's not clear what you are really asking- do you have a particular experiment/measurement in mind?

 

[miraiw]

What I have in mind is a programmable medium for presenting dynamic 3D forms in high resolution. I don't think I know enough to measure or expirement with this, but the image in the article seemed suggestive of a system where an array of lasers would be directed towards a volume of quinine, the fluorescence appearing only in regions of high-concentrations of chloride ions. My difficulty here is that I've never heard of controlling concentration gradients in a solution in the ways that would be necessary to generate recognizable images. I could do research into this, but if someone with greater knowledge of fluids suggested that the task would be too difficult, that would save me some time.

Does this seem reasonable?

 

[Andy Resnick]

What I have in mind is a programmable medium for presenting dynamic 3D forms in high resolution. <snip>
Does this seem reasonable?

Not to me.

 

[miraiw]

Are you responding to the post as a whole, or to only the idea of "presenting dynamic 3D forms in high resolution"?

I think I could have made my question clearer. Please look at this video here:
The demonstration in the video is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in. Probably you would not call this 'high resolution', but I was comparing it to smaller cubes in a sparser grid. However, I don't want to use LEDs because I'm curious about other ways to replicate the visual quality of this voxel-based display. I hit on the fluorescence quenching, and as I mentioned, it looked like something that could be used for this thing. Why wouldn't you use this phenomenon for making a display like in the video besides there being other ways of doing it?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Are you responding to the post as a whole, or to only the idea of "presenting dynamic 3D forms in high resolution"?

<snip>

Time-lapse 3D images of subcellular dynamics is extremely interesting, the method you mention is highly indirect and overly complicated.

An example of alternatives that directly image items of interest: fluorescent fusion proteins, intracellular Ca++ or NO with fluorescent indicator dyes, etc. etc.

 

[sophiecentaur]

What I have in mind is a programmable medium for presenting dynamic 3D forms in high resolution. I don't think I know enough to measure or expirement with this, but the image in the article seemed suggestive of a system where an array of lasers would be directed towards a volume of quinine, the fluorescence appearing only in regions of high-concentrations of chloride ions. My difficulty here is that I've never heard of controlling concentration gradients in a solution in the ways that would be necessary to generate recognizable images. I could do research into this, but if someone with greater knowledge of fluids suggested that the task would be too difficult, that would save me some time.

Does this seem reasonable?

One basic problem about what you have is that, to show a proper three dimensional image, you have to be able to produce an opaque dark surface as well as the bright parts of your image. If you cannot do this, the dark parts of the image will be transparent and you will see the stuff behind that you shouldn't be able to. So what you need is to be able to produce light absorbing regions as well as light emitting regions. That YouTube video consists of 'seller's images' but even they have transparent bits in them. Pretty but no fidelity.
Back to the drawing board, I think - if you want good 3D telly. A possible application for some things though.