How history may help solve the maritime mystery of ‘milky seas’

Imagine being a sailor in the 1700s and suddenly in the pitch black of the night, the sea begins to glow a fluorescent green, illuminating the ocean like a giant nightlight. Today, this peculiar occurrence is known as “milky seas,” but more than 300 years later researchers still don’t know much more about the phenomenon than those sailors did.Now Colorado State University researcher Justin Hudson is using centuries worth of sea captain diaries and deck logs, coupled with satellite imagery, to help solve this maritime mystery.