Surprising Science — April 28, 2014

Have Jellyfish Found the Fountain of Youth?

Has the Fountain of Youth been found, in the form of jellyfish? Shin Kubota, a Japanese scientist, discovered that a microscopic species of jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, can grow young, again and again, rejuvenating itself.

“It can live forever, I think,”Kubota told CBS News. Turritopsis dohrnii can age in reverse, like the peculiar protagonist in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” “I want to become young, in the future,” Kubota, a stroke survivor, said.

But what can these spineless animals offer us homo sapiens? We’re not able to engineer their abilities in humans, yet. The genetic engineering would be quite complicated, or unlikely.

While the CBS video report was released yesterday, The New York Times profiled Kubota and his search for immortal life in 2012.

Image credit: charnsitr/Shutterstock

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