Researchers at the French Institute for Sea Research and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies found microscopic phytoplankton take in and redistribute light signals to pass on information.

via SyFy

In Steven Spielberg’s classic sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, humanity is visited by an advanced alien species. In the absence of any common language, the aliens divert to simpler communication methods, those of sound and light.

In Earth’s oceans, a similar type of communication is happening among some of the smallest and most ubiquitous organisms on our planet. While communication and socialization are often thought of as existing only in the realm of higher animals, the ability to share information is important even for the very small and very simple.

Read more and check out the research published in Science Advances.