Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
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Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#2Without paywall: http://web.archive.org/web/20210827125241/https://www.nytime...
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#3Very long time ago in a galaxy far far away decided to go for a night swim while on a sea-side vacation. All was well, but something was off. It took some time to realize that the water was glowing with every movement. The faster I'd go, the more pronounced the light was. It faded very quickly, but was still very much visible if paid a little attention.
That was as unexpected as it gets. I heard of bioluminescence before that, but it was just so mesmerizing and mind-blowing to see it in real life. Very very cool.
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#4It's surprising to me how many creatures have eyes, yet how few can create light.
Creating light isn't awfully hard biologically - there are lots of reactions that can create (mostly monochromatic) light. Even humans make tiny yet detectable amounts of light as a side effect of some cellular level chemical reactions.
It does use quite a lot of energy, but illumination to levels similar to moonlight is still tiny compared to the energy budgets of most animals, even if the biological light-making process is pretty inefficient.
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#5It's surprising to me how many creatures have eyes, yet how few can create light. Creating light isn't awfully hard biologically - there are lots of reactions that can create (mostly monochromatic) light. Even humans make tiny yet detectable amounts of light as a side effect of some cellular level chemical reactions. It does use quite a lot of energy, but illumination to levels similar to moonlight is still tiny comp…
I guess most living things put more energy into not being seen so they're not eaten
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#6It's surprising to me how many creatures have eyes, yet how few can create light. Creating light isn't awfully hard biologically - there are lots of reactions that can create (mostly monochromatic) light. Even humans make tiny yet detectable amounts of light as a side effect of some cellular level chemical reactions. It does use quite a lot of energy, but illumination to levels similar to moonlight is still tiny comp…
I guess most living things put more energy into not being seen so they're not eaten
Some do it to invite the dinner.
A lot more to invite mating partners.
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#7Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#8Very long time ago in a galaxy far far away decided to go for a night swim while on a sea-side vacation. All was well, but something was off . It took some time to realize that the water was glowing with every movement. The faster I'd go, the more pronounced the light was. It faded very quickly, but was still very much visible if paid a little attention. That was as unexpected as it gets. I heard of bioluminescence b…
I saw a clip from a Joe Rogan podcast some time back about a man who was doing long distance swimming. He was dropped off in the ocean in the middle of the night and had to swim toward the cost or some islands or something. With the boat out of view and no light pollution, what he could see was the stars above and the lights all in the water. If I recall correctly he said something like it became hard to tell where one ended and the other began and he had the feeling of flying through space.
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#9We have great pictures and videos of our time at sea. But one of the things I could not photograph was bioluminescence at night. I assumed phytoplankton was fairly spread out, globally. But one of the most active areas we sailed in was off the coast of Tenerife. The water was literally glowing with activity. And things staring back at me, swimming alongside us. Sadly, none of the cameras I brought could operate at such low levels without making a smeary mess.
Re: Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow with Trillions of Organisms
#10We have great pictures and videos of our time at sea. But one of the things I could not photograph was bioluminescence at night. I assumed phytoplankton was fairly spread out, globally. But one of the most active areas we sailed in was off the coast of Tenerife. The water was literally glowing with activity. And things staring back at me, swimming alongside us. Sadly, none of the cameras I brought could operate at su…
How long ago was this? Sensor technology has progressed significantly within the last 15 or so years. There’s a docuseries on Netflix that captured night scenes, including algae glow.