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Such conditions, he hypothesizes, could foster superdense bacterial populations whose quorum sensing extends vertically as well as horizontally to adjacent colonies, magnifying the depth and breadth of the resulting milky sea.

Other sleuths have since suggested that the steady glow results from “quorum sensing,” the ability of bacteria to communicate through chemical signaling.

The glow of quorum sensing in bacteria may act as a different invitation: when a colony runs low on food in the open water, it may glow to encourage nearby fish to come and consume the bacteria, consequently sustaining the bacteria in their guts.

This balance is sustained in part through cooperative chemical signaling among bacterial neighbors, a form of social communication called “quorum sensing” by microbiologists.

Researchers are using this feature, known as quorum sensing, to control the behaviour of mixed populations of bacteria, to, for example, allow bacteria that compete with each other to co-exist and form a stable population.