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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist has written a blog about science since 4 August 2004 (the early years are archived here) and was part of the original invited group of 14 "SciBlings" -- her only claim to fame. If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, please help her pay her living expenses by clicking on the Paypal button below and by voting for her to be the official blogger on a month long adventure in Antarctica. If you read an essay that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for OpenLab2009.

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Pistol Shrimp

Topic Categories: InvertebratesStreaming videos
Posted on: June 4, 2007 8:59 AM, by "GrrlScientist"

tags: , , ,


This streaming video shows how a pistol shrimp hunts; by laying in wait for its prey to wander nearby, then using its claw to blow a stunning blast of water at a speed of 100km/h with temperature 5000C [1:33].

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Comments

1

I love that the scientists who first saw the light flashes called it 'shrimpoluminescence'.

Just finished reading an excellent book by Andrew Parker called Seven Deadly Colours, which mentions this - Parker says that the pistol shrimp is the only animal to create light in this way, but the mantis shrimp does it too.

Posted by: Ed Yong | June 4, 2007 10:11 AM

2

Is that 9900C correct? It says it reaches the temperature of the sun. If we assume they mean the surface of the sun, that is approx 5800K which is approx 9980F.

I always found these shrimps amazing, I'm trying to remember which wildlife show showed two of them fighting?

Posted by: Chris' Wills | June 4, 2007 12:50 PM

3

It appears that the number of 5000K is correct. Check this link out.

Link

Posted by: Taylor Hain | June 4, 2007 1:33 PM

4
It appears that the number of 5000K is correct. Check this link out. Posted by: Taylor Hain

Can't argue with nature :o) though it does say at least 5000K for the temperature these bubbles collapsing can produce.

I guess that the commentator just gave an example that people could relate to as being very hot.

The surface temperature of the Sun is 5500C according to http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3664

Convert to Farenheit and forget to change C to F, easy typo.

Posted by: Chris' Wills | June 4, 2007 2:03 PM

5

This is the way that the recent advances in low-temperature fusion were made: they created collapsing bubbles similar to this in a high-deuterium acetone solution.

Posted by: Justin George | June 4, 2007 11:59 PM

6

wtf is with the setting ??? all those broken down shit ?

Posted by: matelot | June 5, 2007 12:40 AM

7

tags: cat... ???

Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | June 6, 2007 4:24 PM

8

weird, huh. i fixed it, though.

Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | June 6, 2007 5:39 PM

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