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Blue seas at night, sea creatures’ delight

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Caren B. Les, [email protected]

One-celled plankton have long been known to produce blue flashes in the sea at night, but no one has known quite how they do it – until now. The plankton, called dinoflagellates (Karlodinium veneficum), bioluminesce through a mechanism involving voltage-gated proton channels within their membranes, according to a study that showed that chemical or electrical events can open or close these channels. The channels were first proposed back in the 1970s by J. Woodland Hastings of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Now, he and colleagues around the country have confirmed their...Read full article

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    Published: January 2012
    Glossary
    bioluminescence
    Heatless light emissions from living organisms caused by the combination of oxygen and pigments such as luciferin.
    AmericasbioluminescenceBiophotonicsblue flashes in oceanCaren Lesdinoflagellate bloomsdinoflagellatesJ. Woodland HastingsplankgonPostscriptsred tidesvoltage-gated proton channels

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