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Article: Shrimps spew bubbles as hot as the sun.(data on sonoluminescence, caused by snapping shrimp, is recorded)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 6, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Pinkie-size marine crustaceans whose snappy noisemaking has already captivated scientists also stage some flashy pyrotechnics, researchers now find. While earlier experiments had shown that so-called snapping shrimp generate imploding air bubbles that make loud popping sounds (SN: 9/23/00, p. 199), a new study reveals that those collapsing bubbles emit flashes of light and may flare as hot as the sun's surface.
In the Oct. 4 NATURE, Detlef Lohse of Twente University in Enschede, the Netherlands, and his colleagues present measurements of those light flashes. Using readings from a sensitive light detector called a photomultiplier tube, they offer the first evidence ...