http://www.metafilter.com/tags/turritopsisNutricula Posts tagged with 'turritopsisNutricula' at MetaFilter. Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:33:24 -0800 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:33:24 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/68631/The%2DImmortal%2DSpecies While the dream of immortality might be as old as mankind, the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula <a href="http://www.emilydamstra.com/portfolio2.php?illid=513" title="Image of Turritopsis nutricula">(image)</a> seems to be <a href="http://8e.devbio.com/preview_article.php?ch=2&id=6">living it</a>: <blockquote>The <abbr title="”any freshwater or marine coelenterate of the class Hydrozoa, including free-swimming or attached types, as the hydra, in which one developmental stage, either the polyp or medusa, is absent, and colonial types, as the Portuguese man-of-war, in which both medusa and polyp stages are present in a single colony.” (Dictionary.com)">hydrozoan</abbr> Turritopsis nutricula has evolved a remarkable variation on this theme, and in so doing appears to have achieved immortality. The solitary medusa of this species can revert to its polyp stage after becoming sexually mature (Bavestrello et al., 1992; Piraino et al., 1996). In the laboratory, 100% of these medusae regularly undergo this change. Thus, it is possible that organismic death does not occur in this species!</blockquote><a href="http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/content/abstract/190/3/302">An in-depth research paper</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.68631 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:33:24 -0800 aging biology death immortality jellyfish nature turritopsisNutricula Foci for Analysis