Summertime beachgoers are all too familiar with the painful reality of a jellyfish sting. But how do the stinging cells of jellyfish and their coral and sea anemone cousins actually work? New research unveils a precise operational model for the stinging organelle of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. The study involved the application of cutting-edge microscopic imaging technologies along with the development of a biophysical model to enable a comprehensive understanding of a mechanism that has remained elusive for over a century.
