Gonyaulax Polyedra

Another experiment at the International Institute of Biophysics in Neuss, Germany. This time an experiment in bioluminescence. I observed
the Gonyaulax Polyedra, a bioluminescent dinoflagellate. As you can (or cannot) see, they are very small. On the picture they show up as these little brownish things. They have a very interesting behaviour of respond to vibration with the emission of burst of light. Another fascinating thing is that they behave like firefly flashing light in synchrony.



Here is a scanning electron micrograph image from
J. Woodland Hastings Research Group Harvard University



…and this video shows their response to vibration. Listen to the sound.



I put two bottles of Gonyaulax Polyedra inside a dark chamber as shown below, so that the two groups could see each other. In another experiment I used a piece of black paper to block visual contact between then. I wanted to see how lack of visual contact affect their synchronous behaviour. Te bottles are made of quartz glass that allows UV transmission.



Here the video