Before and after: underwater edition

February 2, 2014 11:06 AM

Scientists have created peanut butter and jellyfish, feeding moon jellies a slurry of creamy peanut butter and sea water. The jellyfish are growing fine and brown and smell like peanut butter. [pdf of study]
posted by jeather (36 comments total)

Hey, you got peanut butter in my marine life!
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:08 AM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Are they spreadable?
posted by jfuller at 11:10 AM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Is it April, 1st already?
posted by jim in austin at 11:15 AM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

SCIENCE
posted by vibrotronica at 11:15 AM on February 2, 2014

Choosy mothers choose jellyfish
posted by hal9k at 11:17 AM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]

And I thought mac & cheese was cool.
posted by simulacra at 11:19 AM on February 2, 2014

JiF... The name begins to make sense.
posted by hal9k at 11:20 AM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Pfft. I invented this in a drawing I made when I was six years old.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:21 AM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME FISH
posted by pemberkins at 11:22 AM on February 2, 2014 [13 favorites]

Needs more Marvelous Breadfish.
posted by oulipian at 11:23 AM on February 2, 2014

jamaro: "One of the photos in the first link demonstrates why this is a bad idea: being full of peanut butter makes the moon jelly look less like "ethereal wisp of the ocean" and more like "floating bag of poo."

Jellyfish are floating bags of poo for a while after feeding, which is when that photo was taken.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:31 AM on February 2, 2014

At last report, Spongebob Squarepants was seen squealing with glee as he waved his jellyfish net wildly.
posted by briank at 11:41 AM on February 2, 2014

Isn't peanut butter too expensive as a feed for raising edible animals? I know as things go we'll be probably having Soylent Jelly for most meals in a few decades, but there's surely something more practical to feed them and improve the taste(?).
posted by Iosephus at 11:42 AM on February 2, 2014

From the pdf:
"...we would love to claim we conducted this trial with noble purpose, but the truth is we just wanted to create peanut butter and jellyfish to see if it could be done. Whether or not it should be done is a question no doubt to be debated by philosophers for the ages (or at least by aquarists over some beers). We herein report on what we believe to be the first known unholy amalgamation of America's favorite lunchtime treat and live cnidarians."
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:46 AM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]

“The question of sourcing non-traditional protein sources for use in aquatic animal feeds reaches beyond economics and convenience, and in recent years has become a focal point to increase the overall sustainability of aquaculture. It has been increasingly evident in recent years that the use of many fish or shrimp-based protein sources in aquaculture is a wholly unsustainable practice (Naylor et. al., 2000, Naylor et. al., 2009) which begs the need for novel solutions.” — the paper

so, while I don't know exactly how the math works out, it sounds like it's not impossible that PB is less expensive or has lower environmental impact than the regular feed, described in the article as "sea monkeys".
posted by jepler at 11:48 AM on February 2, 2014

Ah, I see, crazy scientists, my kind of people. I'm all for the unholy too.
posted by Iosephus at 11:48 AM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Now they just need to make them grape flavored.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:51 AM on February 2, 2014

As someone who grew up at the beach, this is a sick desecration of a traditional American sammich, and makes me want to stock up on molotov cocktails in case the start washing up around here.

Fucking Dr. Frankensteins. When generations from now the smell of peanut butter is associated with mutant death monsters from the sea, I hope we still have servers running so these bastards can be tracked down and blamed.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:52 AM on February 2, 2014 [6 favorites]

It turns out that I was not, in fact, ready for this jelly.
posted by zamboni at 12:25 PM on February 2, 2014 [14 favorites]

One of the photos in the first link demonstrates why this is a bad idea: being full of peanut butter makes the moon jelly look less like "ethereal wisp of the ocean" and more like "floating bag of poo."

So they look like the disgusting brown lumps that completely clog up Atlantic Canada every summer?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:30 PM on February 2, 2014

THIS IS PLAYING GOD
posted by GuyZero at 12:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

THIS IS PLAYING GOD

Call me when God develops a taste for smores. This would save me the trouble of hunting around the campsite for a roasting stick.
posted by mule98J at 1:10 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: bags of poo for a while after feeding
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Next experiment: Marmite.
posted by Hogshead at 1:17 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

It would be funny if after the massive extinction event we are in comes to a close, the only lifeforms left are peanut plants and jellyfish.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:21 PM on February 2, 2014

THIS IS PLAYING GOD

THEY GO TOO FAR!
posted by Artw at 2:02 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]

Next experiment: Marmite.

Both my children have rejected Marmite, clearly I am cursed.
posted by Artw at 2:04 PM on February 2, 2014

Ugh, who eats Marmite and jelly sandwiches?
posted by oneirodynia at 2:31 PM on February 2, 2014

fine and brown and smell like peanut butter.

Mmm, mmmmmm.
posted by bongo_x at 3:24 PM on February 2, 2014

Jellyfish are floating bags of poo for a while after feeding, which is when that photo was taken.

Technically, this is true of all of us as well, minus the floating part (well, mostly).
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:53 PM on February 2, 2014

THIS IS PLAYING GOD

I am going to steal this line when I peanut butter my toast.
posted by srboisvert at 7:01 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hm. Maybe something along these lines that happened to Calvin...Help! I'm being eaten alive by my own lunch! Somebody get me a fork!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:38 PM on February 2, 2014

makes me want to stock up on molotov cocktails

You're in luck! They're currently working on The Creation of the World's First Molotov Cockroach.
posted by oulipian at 3:00 AM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

Science is great, but sometimes it needs to stop getting stoned while watching Spongebob Squarepants.
posted by jonp72 at 6:30 AM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

I just want to know, as per a discussion with oneswellfoop, whether these jellyfish also have peanut stings. Could you then make a stinging jellyfish that also causes allergic reactions? Would they taste peanutty? Would peanut-free elementary schools become jellyfish-free?
posted by jeather at 7:03 AM on February 3, 2014

We don't need to be reminded, Joakim.

Oh, OK. I was going to point out that they also poo through their mouths, but now I won't.
posted by flabdablet at 9:13 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]