There's a story in the Bible of how water turned to blood in theland of Egypt. We'll speak to a scientist about red tides. Click to enlarge.
Fluorescent probes help find toxic algal species.
These molecules stick to a toxic algal cell. When a probe reaches its destination, the toxic cell gets tagged with a compound that glows under fluorescent light. Anderson's team tested the probes last spring, in the Gulf of Maine . And within a matter of about an hour or two we knew exactly what was in the water samples we had just collected. So instead of waiting months to get our data, before the cruise was over, basically, we knew the distribution of the toxic algae.