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17 Jun 2002
A group of Ukranian biologists, who were arrested last month charged with transferring government secrets, had been studying bioluminescence.
Some plankton glow when they are physically disturbed and biologists use their bioluminescence to study their global distribution. However this luminescence can also reveal the locations of hidden vessels such as submarines.
Depending on the depth of the vessel and the distribution of plankton, a submarine's wake can disturb the plankton enough to produce a glow at the surface that can be detected from another vessel, an aircraft or a satellite.
According to an article in the 20 November 1999 issue of New Scientist magazine, the four scientists, from the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol, were all working on EU and other Western funded projects into these species. The magazine believes that this is the reason for the Ukranian government's suspicion.
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