Add one more possible danger from the Gulf oil spill: tiny oil particles ingested by translucent sea creatures could burn them up from the inside out.

The theory is still somewhat controversial, but it's been shown to happen in the laboratory and several groups are looking in to it in real-world conditions.

The phenomenon is called photoenhanced toxicity.

What happens is when certain types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum are absorbed into translucent cells and those cells are then exposed to sunlight, the ultraviolent radiation in the sunlight can excite the oxygen molecules present, acting as a catalyst inside the cell and literally burning it up from the inside out.

"It can magnify the toxicity of polyyclic hydrocarbons by several thousand fold," says Jeffrey Short, a former NOAA chemist who is now Pacific Science Director with Oceana.

The chemical reaction can happen in both single and multi-celled organisms, including zooplankton, fish and crustacean larvae.

By Elizabeth Weise