Image credit: Takashi Murai
Some people would love to live forever, while others would say that sounds like torture. You might have heard of the Greek prophet Sibyls, who wished for immortality without asking for youth. As you can imagine over time she withered down to a small size and wished for death.
Let’s remove aging from the equation, if you could start again from the age of a toddler would you? Throw away the concept of aging, as once you're stressed or starving you could start again. That is what a jellyfish called Turritopsis Dohrnii better known as the Immortal Jellyfish can do.
It's a tiny jelly fish at the size of 4.5mm, which can be found in most tropical oceans around the world. What makes this species stand out is, it's biologically immortal. This means it can be killed but can't die of old age. After it reaches maturity, it can turn back into a sexual immature age. It only takes a few weeks for it to reach maturity once again. This is uncommon for jellyfish as they usually have a fixed life spanned.
Let’s go over the animal’s lifecycle in a bit more detail. The jellyfish starts their life as a larva called a Planula, which settles on the sea floor and begins to grow. It will grow into a cylinder shaped colony called Polyps, which would only take a few weeks before it becomes a Mesuda (adult); the form that most people recognise. When it’s threatened or stressed it can start the cycle again. It will become a ball of tissue within three days, before turning into a young polyp. Then a colony of identical clones of the original will form repeating the cycle. In short it’s like a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar.
This has inspired scientist to figure out, how it can transform its cells to a younger state. There are many medical implications if we do this to a fraction of our cells. We could cure some diseases that causes cells damage like Alzheimer, autoimmune diseases, Cancer and Parkinson etc. This doesn’t mean we’d live forever as the Jellyfish can still die of other diseases but this would definitely add longevity.
