Strange Nature | The Curious Case of the Immortal Jellyfish
In 1853, in Upper Mesopotamia, 12 clay tablets dating to 2100 B.C.E. were discovered in the ruins of an ancient library. Written on the tablets in cuneiform was the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of Mesopotamia’s most beloved stories.
On tablet number 11, Gilgamesh, mourning the death of his friend Enkidu and in a search for immortality, is given a quest. He is to go to the bottom of the sea and find a specific plant that looks like a boxthorn, and it will make him young again. He binds stones to his feet, walks on the bottom of the sea and finds this plant. Planning to test the plant on an old man before he uses it himself, Gilgamesh carries it to the surface. When he stops to bathe, the plant is stolen by a serpent, who sheds it’s skin and becomes young again as it escapes.
In 1883, only 30 years after the recovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh tablets, there was another discovery. Floating in the warm waters of the Mediterranean was a Medusa, which became known as Turritopsis dohrnii. A little over 100 years later, scientists realized that this unique creature may never actually die. Like, ever. It's feasible that there could be a handful of Turritopsis medusas out there, swimming in our oceans, that are millions of years old.
In the summer of 1988, Christian Sommer, a twenty-something German marine biology student was on holiday with his girlfriend in a small town in the Italian Riviera. Christian wasn’t there strictly for fun and sun. He was also working. He would dive in the turquoise blue waters of the sea, between the Portofino cliffs, and rummage near the seafloor with a very fine net, in hopes of capturing a few of these nearly imperceptible Turriptosis medusas of his own.
See, a medusa is the adult form of a jellyfish. That image you think of - a translucent umbrella or bell shaped body with tentacles - that’s a medusa. But that’s only one of two forms that the jellyfish takes in its complicated life cycle. The younger form is called a polyp, which attaches itself to the ocean floor, camouflaged as coral. This polyp grows buds - which become jellyfish medusa. These particular medusa are tiny - 3 millimeters in diameter - smaller than your pinky fingernail.
Now back to the Italian Riviera and our marine biology student, Christian Sommer. Find the Turritopsis he did. Upon return to his lab, the medusa were put into a jar, and like we would expect from a young 20-something student - Christian forgot about his new pets. For a few days he didn’t check on them. Didn’t feed them.
When he decided to look again at the jar, the jellyfish were gone. But he noticed, there on the bottom of the jar, were several polyps. Over the next few days, those polyps became medusa. The same medusa.
Inside this jar was a creature that defied biology. Rather than succumb to the hunger, these Medusa had simply reversed their aging. Changed their cells back to polyp form. And then re-birthed themselves. Like a butterfly reverting back to a caterpillar, or a frog changing back to a tadpole, just because it thought it was a good idea to start over.
The Immortal Jellyfish (source: American Museum of Natural History)
It could be that 4000 years ago, the “boxthorn-like plant” that Gilgamesh had been searching for, was actually the budding, coral like Turritopsis Polyp. It’s possible that this jellyfish holds the key to immortality.
So is the Turritopsis REALLY immortal? Well, no. They can be, and often are, eaten by predators. And even in polyp form, they require finicky, specific conditions to remain alive. But given those conditions, and add in a little luck to evade predators, and it’s not impossible to imagine that these creatures could just keep re-birthing themselves.
One scientist in Japan has taken a fanatical interest in this endless life-cycle. Shin Kubota spends several hours everyday gathering plankton to feed his Turritopsis, traveling with them so that he can continue caring for them, and eventually seeing many of them - several species of them - complete their life-cycles up to 14 times and counting. He’s seen them do it due to injury. And aging. And stress of many forms. And they just keep doing it.
Source: Outforia
Medusa to polyp to medusa to polyp to medusa to polyp to medusa and on and on and on.
Maybe forever.
And these jellyfish are lucky. Not simply because they have this unique ability, but because Shin found them. Or they found Shin. Whichever way it went, he’s dedicated his life to them.
He’s been studying them for over 40 years. In 2018, at age 65, he met with his mandatory retirement from his job as associate professor at the Seto Marine Biology Laboratory in Kyoto, Japan, which gave him even more time to focus on the Turritopsis. He soon opened the Scarlet Jellyfish Regeneration Biology Research Institute.
While jellyfish are popular in Japanese aquariums, Kubota has taken it to an entirely different level. In order to spread the word about the Immortal Jellyfish, he’s combined his passion for music with his passion for the Turritopsis.
By night he visits karaoke spots, dons a jellyfish costume of his own making, transforms into Mr. Immortal Jellyfish Man, and sings one of the many songs he has written about his beloved creatures. Titles such as “Life Forever”, Scarlet Medusa - an Eternal Witness”, “Die Hard Medusa” and “The Immortal Jellyfish Festival Song”, which you’re hearing right now.
Shin Kubota laying down some karaoke songs.
And for Shin, these aren’t just fun songs. They’re a way to communicate how much he loves these jellyfish - and all animals. They are advice for us on how to be better to nature. Because he’s conflicted. He believes that there is a distinct possibility of finding the secret of regeneration and using it to turn back time on disease and injury in humans, but he’s also watched as humans have consistently and quickly destroyed the natural world. “Nature is so beautiful,” he says. “If human beings disappeared, how peaceful it would be.”
Now, I’m not entirely sure I’d want to start over. In fact, I’m positive I wouldn’t want to. I don’t want to go through Junior High School again. But if I could have my 25 year old athleticism and recovery time with the knowledge I have now - well, I could absolutely go for that. I assume a lot of us would.
So it’s not surprising that other scientists have joined Kubota in his quest, all across the world.
Recently, in August of 2022, researchers in Spain were able to map the genome of Turritopsis dohrnii as well as that of another Turritopsis species that lacks regeneration ability. By comparing these two genetic sequences, they were able to identify the key genomic markers that allow the Immortal Jellyfish to rejuvenate itself.
And while there’s no immediate human application for this discovery, it does open up new lines of study that could one day be important for us, just like Dr. Kubota predicts.
And so they carry on. Gilgamesh in stone boots, searching for the secret to immortality.
Links from this episode:
Music for this episode is:
Wondrous Waters from Nullhertz
Dancing In The Color Of Life by Daniel Birch is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Vast Possibilities by Daniel Birch is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
