Tom Yum

Shrimp Gunners...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c77_1181450463

By cocking and snapping its claws in a pistol like manner, the pistol shrimp can produce a cavitation wave that generates acoustic pressures of up to 80 kPa at a distance of 4 cm from the claw. The pressure wave is strong enough to kill small fish.

The snap can also produce sonoluminescence from a collapsing bubble, also known as a cavitation bubble. As it collapses, the cavitation bubble reaches the surface temperature of the Sun . The light is of lower intensity than the light produced by typical sonoluminescence and is not visible to the naked eye.

It is most likely a by-product of the shock wave with no biological significance. However, it is the first known instance of an animal producing light by this effect.

Questions:

1. The video states that the pistol shrimp is responsible for most of the animal-related sonic disruptions for submarine transmissions. Can these sonic blasts be mimicked or better yet, can these pistol shrimp be used to disrupt enemy submarine transmissions?

2. The video states that the cavitation action causes the imploding bubble to temporarily reach the temperature of the sun's surface. If this is true, could such blasts be used as a heat source in cold waters?

By limiting the blasts ability to do displacement work (dV = 0) it would get converted into internal energy and cause a greater temperature increase?

One would assume the reverse is true - and by limiting the blasts ability to increase internal energy, the blast could do displacement work and be used as a method of propulsion?

I'm sure there are better ways of producing heat in cold water (probably through controlled chemical reactions) but it seems interesting.

3. Could such a mechanism be mimicked on a larger scale and used by men to fight off animals that are harmful to men - such as sharks, sting rays etc?

If a shrimp can use this mechanism to kill a small fish, scaled upward a man should be able to use it to kill a shark.

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