rw@aiva.ed.ac.uk (Richard White) (07/29/88)
This is a re-posting. Our mail/news links have been flaky lately, so I don't know if this got out, or if anyone responded. Pardon the repetition if you have seen this before:- One night last week some friends and I did a night dive in one of the Scottish sea lochs amongst an amazing display of phosphorescence. I have been told that this is due to the presence of phosphorescent algae in the water. This prompted the following questions: How do the algae phosphoresce? They only seem to glow when the water is agitated. Why do they do it? Is there an evolutionary advantage in doing so? Do they phosphoresce all the time or just when it is dark? Hopefully someone in sci.bio-land can shed some light on this (pun intended :-) Thanks Richard White, JANET: R.White@uk.ac.edinburgh Department of Artificial Intelligence, ARPA: R.White%uk.ac.ed@nss.ucl.ac.uk University of Edinburgh UUCP: ...!ukc!ed.ac.uk!R.White