The Immortal Jellyfish
Daniel Murphy
Salt Lake Community College
Biology 1090-003
The Medusa, oft referenced from Greek Mythology. A monstrous beast, a Gorgon, a mythical creature of legends. Turritopsis dohrnii, a creature far more rooted in reality, but with no less mystical qualities.
Most living creatures, when faced with stress, tend to slowly degrade and suffer quality of life. Contrary to this, the Medusa is able to take deleterious scenarios, such as starvation, illness, severe physical damage, or degradation through age and utilize it as a catalyst to not just revitalize itself, but to engage in an act of re-birth. Almost like a Hollywood movie, the Medusa transforms itself back into its primordial state. Altering its genetic programming, the Medusa is able to effectively transform its own cell’s into a neutral state, akin to stem-cells. From this the Medusa’s cells can be completely reprogrammed into any function required. Through asexual reproduction, the Medusa is able to clone itself to a factor of many hundreds. This establishes the potential reality that, assuming a particular Medusa, or one of its numerous clone-offspring are able to evade capture, consumption, or otherwise untimely death, it could, literally, live forever.
The pharmaceutical applications of this are immense. Humans have already been attempting to effectively master stem-cell research for decades. If the process by which the Medusa is able to “de-program” its cells can be fully understood and replicated, it would herald a new era in biomedical possibilities. The practical applications would cover a multitude of diseases, including cancer, auto-immune diseases, repairing and/or replacing damage organs, limbs, or other parts of the body, etc. While some may consider the Turritopsis dohrnii to be an invasive species, our future success as a species may hinge, in part, upon the very characteristics we have derided in the past.
Works cited:
Daniel Murphy
Salt Lake Community College
Biology 1090-003
The Medusa, oft referenced from Greek Mythology. A monstrous beast, a Gorgon, a mythical creature of legends. Turritopsis dohrnii, a creature far more rooted in reality, but with no less mystical qualities.
Most living creatures, when faced with stress, tend to slowly degrade and suffer quality of life. Contrary to this, the Medusa is able to take deleterious scenarios, such as starvation, illness, severe physical damage, or degradation through age and utilize it as a catalyst to not just revitalize itself, but to engage in an act of re-birth. Almost like a Hollywood movie, the Medusa transforms itself back into its primordial state. Altering its genetic programming, the Medusa is able to effectively transform its own cell’s into a neutral state, akin to stem-cells. From this the Medusa’s cells can be completely reprogrammed into any function required. Through asexual reproduction, the Medusa is able to clone itself to a factor of many hundreds. This establishes the potential reality that, assuming a particular Medusa, or one of its numerous clone-offspring are able to evade capture, consumption, or otherwise untimely death, it could, literally, live forever.
The pharmaceutical applications of this are immense. Humans have already been attempting to effectively master stem-cell research for decades. If the process by which the Medusa is able to “de-program” its cells can be fully understood and replicated, it would herald a new era in biomedical possibilities. The practical applications would cover a multitude of diseases, including cancer, auto-immune diseases, repairing and/or replacing damage organs, limbs, or other parts of the body, etc. While some may consider the Turritopsis dohrnii to be an invasive species, our future success as a species may hinge, in part, upon the very characteristics we have derided in the past.
Works cited:
- “Immortal” Jellyfish Swarm World’s Oceans "Http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090130-immortal-jellyfish-swarm.html." N.p., n.d. Web.
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