What molecule washes up on beaches?
What molecule washes up on beaches? Waves from winter storms and high winds churn air into the ocean and lather up surfactants in the surf. The surfactant molecules attract each other and line up into those sandwich layers, with their thin film of water trapped in the middle.
What are the blue things washing up on the beach?
Who are they? The tiny disc-like critters are colonial hydrozoans, classified under the phylum of cnidaria, and their eponymous genus of Velella (not a Game of Thrones reference). Formally titled the Velella velella (say that five times fast) you may know them as by-the-wind sailors.