BIOLUMINESCENCE 2
Transcript:
1. I have a flask that has bioluminescent plankton in it.
2. And you'll note there's no light coming from them right now, either because they're dead -- (Laughter) or because I need to stir them up in some way for you to see what bioluminescence really looks like.
3. (Gasps)
4. Oops. Sorry.
5. (Laughter)
6. I spend most of my time working in the dark; I'm used to that. Okay.
7. So that light was made by a bioluminescent dinoflagellate, a single-celled alga.
8. So why would a single-celled alga need to be able to produce light?
9. Well, it uses it to defend itself from its predators. The flash is like a scream for help.
10. It's what's known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm, and just like the alarm on your car or your house, it's meant to cast unwanted attention onto the intruder, thereby either leading to his capture or scaring him away.
11. There's a lot of animals that use this trick, for example this black dragonfish.
12. It's got a light organ under its eye. It's got a chin barbel. It's got a lot of other light organs you can't see, but you'll see in here in a minute.
13. So we had to chase this in the submersible for quite sometime, because the top speed of this fish is one knot, which was the top speed of the
submersible.
14. But it was worth it, because we caught it in a special capture device, brought it up into the lab on the ship, and then everything on this fish lights up.
15. It's unbelievable. The light organs under the eyes are flashing.
16. That chin barbel is flashing.
17. It's got light organs on its belly that are flashing and fin lights.
18. It's a scream for help; it's meant to attract attention. It's phenomenal. And you normally don't get to see this because we've exhausted the luminescence when we bring them up in nets.