Startle this Parapandulus shrimp, and it will spit a glowing cloud in your direction, illuminating you for predators to see.
To produce these van Gogh-like swirls, the shrimp vomits up chemicals that react together to produce light. This particular shrimp was photographed in the Bahamas, during an expedition in the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible near the sea floor. The mission? To poke sea creatures and see if they would glow.
Check out more bioluminescent animals at National Geographic News.
Shrimp photo via by Sönke Johnsen NOAA-OER/National Geographic News
Most of us assume that by the time food arrives at the grocery store, it’s been checked for any chemicals that might harm us. That’s not necessarily the case: food manufacturers and federal employees test for some known culprits in some foods, but the search isn’t exhaustive, especially when it comes to imported items. Recently, scientists working with ABC News checked to see whether imported farmed shrimp bought from grocery stores had any potentially dangerous antibiotic residue, left over from the antibiotic-filled ponds in which they are raised. It turns out, a few of them did.
Out of 30 samples taken from grocery stores around the US, 3 turned up positive on tests for antibiotics that are banned from food for health reasons. Two of the samples, one imported from Thailand and one from India, had levels of carcinogenic antibiotic nitrofuranzone that were nearly 30 times higher than the amount allowed by the FDA. The other antibiotics the team discovered were enroflaxin, part of a class of compounds that can cause severe reactions in people and promote the growth of drug-resistant bacteria, and chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that is also a suspected carcinogen.