Comb Jellies: The Living Rainbow

 

Comb jellies are small organisms that look like jellyfish (but don’t worry, they don’t sting humans) Comb jellies are common in the oceans.  In fact you might even find one if you look carefully while walking on the beach.  Comb jellies swim by paddling microscopic ‘comb rows’.  These tiny paddles are just the right size to bend light the way water droplets do when they form a rainbow.  So if you watch very closely when comb jellies swim, you can see kaleidoscopic rainbows traveling down the sides of their bodies!