Science Explains - Glowing Waves
You walk down the beach. It’s dark. You hold your significant other’s hand and stare lovingly into their eyes. The waves crash at the shore, illuminating the scenery with a beautiful blue light. You stop and stare. The waves are glowing?
This phenomenon can be observed in many places, for example, California, Australia or the Caribbean. Responsible for the beautiful spectacle are tiny, single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates. They are a kind of phytoplankton and there are more than one species that fall under the name.
One of them is Noctiluca scintillans, which can be observed at the Australian coast.
When the dinoflagellates are disturbed, which they are when waves are throwing them violently against the shore, they start glowing. The glow is achieved by a chemical reaction between something called luciferin, an enzyme called luciferase and oxygen.
As most things in life, the bioluminescence of the dinoflagellates isn’t just there to be looked at by humans, it serves a function.
Imagine you’re a fish, just looking for a midnight snack. You encounter a swarm of plankton and promptly eat some. Suddenly, there is a bright flash! Everything is glowing! Panic! You swim away and completely forget about the plankton you wanted to eat.
Reacting to mechanical stress with glowing is the perfect defense against being eaten. At least for a tiny organism that can’t defend itself.
But why blue? Why not red?
Well, blue is a wavelength that travels furthest through the water.
By the way, there are several places that sell dinoflagellates. So if you want some for yourself at home to annoy until they glow, just google!
And now, do yourself a favor and click through the sources I linked below because they have so many beautiful pictures I wasn’t allowed to use.
Sources:
Bioluminescence turns Australia's shores fluorescent blue
Pictures: Glowing Blue Waves Explained
Understanding Bioluminescence in Dinoflagellates—How Far Have We Come?
Dinoflagellate Bioluminescence
Picture by makelessnoise from Bountiful, Utah, USA
(Biolumin' Essence) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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one night i was sailing off the south coast of the uk with a small pod of dolphins swimming alongside the boat... we hit a patch of this stuff for a while and all the dolphins were glowing, wrapped in sheaths of bioluminescence and leaving a bright trail behind them... magic...
@suesa very interesting
I want to help strive to develop knowledge in steemit and happy to join you all.
and I am also happy to post a comment here.
I can catch your discussion on this post.
you tell about light and include lightning light.
my question is: where is the origin of light and lightning ?
I only know about clouds, because that's my subject matter at elementary school, and I know it happens because of the heat and can collect the clouds until the rain. but until now I have not found the science of the origin of lightning (lightning) and lightning.
I think you can answer that @suesa
thank you
I don't really understand your question
my question :
where did the lightning come from?
and where the lightning comes from!
in this post there is something to do with it (lightning light)
can you explain a little about that ?
Great post!
When I first noticed the light many years ago, I felt that it was a bit eerie until I was told by my accompanying friend that it is natural. Since then I have felt so relaxed on the beach at night(I'm scared of ghosts and spirits lol) that I almost forgot about it till now.
I've spent a lot of time on beaches, more time during the night than the day, and I have noticed this lighting effect. However, I did not know the exact reason, as you have described so wonderfully.
It is really effective, even with humans as I described my early experience!
Opened up all the links you've given - the images are beautiful! By the way one of the links inside the content in the last link that you have listed that seems to link to videos(it says - "amazing video footage") is actually hacked to redirect to an affiliate link. Just fyi for anyone who clicks on the links.
If you have time, it would be great if you could please check out my Missing Steemit FAQ, my latest post.
Very cool article! I might have to buy some dinoflagellates for science class.
Did you run across any information that told whether or not this was what Columbus saw on his journey to the Americas?
I didn't hear about that yet so I didn't keep an eye out for the story but it's very likely.
If you buy some for science class you'll have to adjust their circadian rhythm first, as they only glow at night! Remember that or your class might be disappointed.
Congratulations on winning the daily @OriginalWorks resteem contest!
Superb beaches
Interesting explanation, but it doesn't describe many of the lights seen at sea. The light in a jar of water vibrated at a certain frequency may offer more solutions to the larger phenomena.
@suesa you are full of knowledge and i keep learning new stuff from your blog. You are a great value to steemit. Thanks for sharing this...upped
almost all the beach was beautiful.
and the beauty is different, there are beautiful with the waves, blue sea water and so forth, maybe I can invite you to try to look at the beauty of the existing beaches in Indonesia that is in the region of Sabang area because there are more beautiful beaches, there are also many once visitors including from overseas. thank you @suesa