Does 'immortal' jellyfish have the secret to everlasting life?
updated 12:02 PM EDT, Fri August 29, 2014
For many beach-goers, jellyfish
are a nuisance that blights the seashore. But some scientists believe
they could hold the key to immortality.
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Lifecycle of the 'immortal' jellyfish
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Japanese scarlet jellyfish is known as the "immortal jellyfish"
- Professor Shin Kubota is a marine expert from Japan researching its life cycle
- He says the jellyfish could be the key to rejuvenation in humans
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(CNN) -- For centuries, man has been on a quest to
find the elixir to eternal life. Alchemists struggled fruitlessly to
create the legendary philosopher's stone, a mythical substance capable
of turning base metals into precious gold and said to hold the key to
immortality.
But perhaps they were
going about it the wrong way. Instead of searching for answers on land,
maybe they should have been looking to the sea.
The magic of bioluminescence
World's jellyfish population booming
Thousands of blue creatures wash ashore
In the seaside town of Shirahama, in Japan, one man thinks he knows what holds the key to everlasting life: jellyfish.
Shin Kubota is a professor at Kyoto University's Seto Marine Biological Laboratory.
He began studying the gelatinous sea creatures in 1979, and there's one
type with which he's particularly preoccupied: the scarlet jellyfish.
"They don't die," Kubota
says, "they rejuvenate." He adds that they are one of three jellyfish
species in japan that are considered "immortal."
"One day in my plankton
net, there was a small scarlet jellyfish from (the) south, which had
many sharp sticks stuck into its body," he recalls. "I thought 'poor
thing' and removed all of the sticks, hoping it may become better and
swim again. But it didn't and shrunk. However, it rejuvenated!"
It's less immortality and
more regeneration, but Kubota believes these tiny marine animals could
hold the secret to perpetual life.
When an adult scarlet
jellyfish -- or medusa -- is injured, it goes to the bottom of the ocean
floor. From there, it morphs back into its infant state, known as a
polyp. Then the polyp becomes a new medusa, allowing the jellyfish to
move between an adult and infant state in about two months.
Kubota has succeeded in
making one jellyfish rejuvenate an incredible 12 times in the lab. But
there remain many unanswered questions.
"There should be a key
to rejuvenation in the system of scarlet jellyfish," says Kubota. "I'd
like to believe it could be applied to human beings, because
genetically, jellyfish and humans are not so different."
Watch the video below to see more about Kubota's work at the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory and Japan's "immortal" jellyfish.
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