[socratesOne]

Many people love the way cherry looks when it is first installed. After a few months, however, UV light (supposedly) darkens the cherry from a light red to a light redish brown color. After a few years, it becomes fairly brown. After 50 to 100 years, it becomes very dark.

I've heard the following said about cherry: You'll love it the first year, then you'll hate it after that. This is because of the darkening affect.

If you place a bed over the wood, the wood underneith the bed doesn't darken. I'm not completely sure if cherry gets dark because of UV rays or from some other reason, but wouldn't it make sense, if it were UV rays, to add UV protection to a polyurethane or a dye or a sealer so that the wood doesn't darken?

Reward: One million dollars.

[Steve]

I suppose your were joking about the 1 million dollars, but that's not for me to decide, so please confirm my notion. Generally, no monetary rewards as stated in the rules.

[Rishi]

While UV can be the culprit outdoors, the levels of UV are much less inside. May be oxidation or light itself is the cause of the darkening. Some R&D may be needed to keep a sample in darkness in a nitrogen atmosphere with another in nnormal ambience and study the results. Many coatings already have UV absorbers builtin.
Rishi