title: Snapping shrimp make flashing bubbles.
abstract: Snapping shrimp produce a loud crackling noise that is intense enough to disturb underwater communication. This sound originates from the violent collapse of a large cavitation bubble generated under the tensile forces of a high-velocity water jet formed when the shrimp's snapper-claw snaps shut (Fig. 1). Here we show that a short, intense flash of light is emitted as the bubble collapses, indicating that extreme pressures and temperatures of at least 5,000 K (ref. 4) must exist inside the bubble at the point of collapse. We have dubbed this phenomenon 'shrimpoluminescence' - the first observation, to our knowledge, of this mode of light production in any animal - because of its apparent similarity to sonoluminescence, the light emission from a bubble periodically driven by ultrasound.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Applied Physics and J. M. Burgers Research Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. lohse@tn.utwente.nl
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lohse
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Versluis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D033364:Decapoda / Q000502:physiology*; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D011235:Predatory Behavior