Tangled with jewels, a blue silk handkerchief bobs just beneath the surface. Reach into the water to grab it, though, and you'll regret it. This Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) gives a vicious sting that can leave a red welt across your skin for several days – as hundreds of beach-goers find out every year.
No doubt biologist Eric Röttinger took precautions when he brought this man-of-war into his studio to take this prize-winning shot.
Despite appearances, the man-of-war is not a jellyfish. Strictly speaking, it's not even an "it" but a "they". Men-of-war are siphonophores: animals made up from multiple organisms rolled into one. In this case, four individual polyps – one forming the buoyant gas-filled head, one that catches small fish and shrimp with whip-like tendrils, and two others that handle the messy business of digestion and reproduction – come together as a single creature.
This image won the "non-scientific" category of the annual cover contest put on by molecular biology journal EMBO. See more of the stunning shortlist of images in the contest's online gallery.
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