A blue crab, a highly invasive alien species, is seen at Lio Piccolo during the reforestation day on April 05, 2025 in Venice, Italy. The island of Lio Piccolo in the northern lagoon of Venice is being replanted with 16,000 new trees that will protect the salt marsh ecosystem that is fundamental to the natural health of Venice and the lagoon by WOWnature project, an Etifor initiative. (Photo by Simone Padovani/Getty Images)

On the morning of the February 18th, 2025, a foreign tourist wearing a scarf walks past a store window with spring clothes hanging on the street in Myeongdong, Seoul. (Photo by Park Seong-won)

People walk near an artwork depicting Pope Francis, following the death of the pontiff, in Rome, Italy, on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take part in a military training in Panjshir province on August 30, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP Photo)

“Jet Man” Richard Browning demonstrating Gravity, a human jet suit system, at the opening of the Army's Personnel Conference held at Farnborough International Conference Centre, Farnborough, Hampshire on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. (Photo by Steve Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images)

An artwork by artist Chavis Marmol, a Tesla 3 car crushed by a nine-ton Olmec-inspired head, is pictured in Mexico City on March 13, 2024. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Afghan children play on the remains of a Soviet-era armored personnel carrier on the outskirts of Jalalabad on February 15, 2016. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of fighting against Mujahidin militiamen. (Photo by Noorullah Shirzada/AFP Photo)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)