Nematocysts - yummy

Image courtesy of wikipedia

Well, an enjoyable swim at one of Malta's rocky beaches has ended with my arm strapped with nicely puffed out jelly fish stings. Thanks to the ancient Taoist Qigong practice of Pi Chi it's healed /healing quite well while I was absorbing a pot of tea at a coast-side kiosk (watching the football of course).

We've had an unusually large influx of sea jellies this summer, something to do with a freak heat wave and the lunar eclipse. The two that I was introduced too weren't of the doom-of-all-things-righteous variety and have given me a new appreciation for Scyphozoan class and of course phylum Cnidaria.


Those stinging cells are known as cnidocytes or nematocytes, nasty little designs of wonder shown above in a scanning electron micrograph (a truly sexy microimaging technique). Anyway, it's not the most pleasant experience and thus, as a good deed for the day, I've found some rather interesting medical advice here. One of my favourite bits is

Nematocysts are inactivated by vinegar (or dilute acetic acid 5-10%). NOTE: If no vinegar is handy, then human urine will do in a pinch. If you have a choice in the matter, use a man's urine rather than a woman's urine. This is because females are more prone to occult urinary tract infections, thus introducing bacteria. Male urine is considered sterile, since men are much less likely to have a urinary tract infection.

Now isn't that dandy? And you wonder why they call it Pi Chi.