Number 92 (Story #3), August 19, 1992 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein PHOTONS FROM SONOLUMINESCENCE MAY PEAK IN THE ULTRAVIOLET. Sonoluminescence (SL) is a phenomenon in which sound waves create bubbles in a sample of water and cause them to oscillate. The excited bubbles in turn emit light. Last year, Seth Putterman (213-825-2269) and his group at UCLA discovered that the light pulses were very short, only 50 psec, and that the conversion of sound energy into light energy represented in effective energy concentration of 12 orders of magnitude. Now the UCLA scientists have studied the spectra of SL photons and found that if a peak exists it must be at an energy above 6 eV; detection of photons with energies above this value could not be calibrated. The UCLA researchers believe SL can be used for producing a broadband light source in the wavelength range of 190-750 nm. (Robert Hiller et al., 24 August, Physical Review Letters.)