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This brilliant blue glow illuminating the ocean waves is not a scene out of Avatar.

Looking as if the tiny pricks of light are trying to mirror the stars, these biological lights, or bioluminescence, in the waves are in fact the product of tiny marine life-forms called phytoplankton—and now scientists think they know how some of these sea beasts create their brilliant blue glow.

In the recent study, published last October in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team confirmed the existence of channels in dinoflagellates that allow only protons positively charged particles to pass through…

The study authors propose that, as dinoflagellates float, movement in the surrounding water sends electrical impulses around a proton-filled compartment inside the microorganisms.

The electrical pulses open the voltage-sensitive proton channels, triggering a series of chemical reactions, which ultimately activate a protein called luciferase that produces the stunning neon blue light.

Bioluminescent phytoplankton light up rolling surf during a so-called red tide event along the coast of Leucadia, California

A sailor stands watch on the back of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson as bioluminescent microorganisms illuminate the surrounding water.

Sand along a beach in the Florida Everglades glows with a soft blue light emitted by countless microscopic phytoplankton washed ashore.

Bioluminescent phytoplankton glitter on the incoming tide along an island beach in the Maldives

[Cheers nationalgeographic]