The "Benjamin Button" jellyfish is finally receiving some recognition outside of the academic world. In 1988, German marine biology student Christian Sommer was conducting research on hydrozoans in Rapallo, a small city on the Italian Riviera. Hydrozoans are small invertebrates that resemble either a jellyfish or a soft coral depending on what stage of life its in. While he was collecting the hydrozoans, he inadvertently picked up a tiny, relatively unknown species of jellyfish named Turritopsis dohrnii.

Turritopsis dohrnii
Image from The New York Times

He kept the hydrozoans and Turritopsis dohrnii in petri dishes for observation and noticed that the jellyfish acted very oddly. Incredibly, this species of jellyfish simply did not die. He couldn't come up with any explanation as to why this happened, but it appeared to age in reverse. The jellyfish grew younger and younger until it reached the very first stage of its development, and then its life cycle would begin again. It took nearly a decade for the word "immortal" to describe the species, because what was going on was simply not understood.

Intrigued with Sommer's finding, biologists in Genoa continued to study the species and in 1996, they published a paper entitled "Reversing the Life Cycle" which described that how, at any stage of development, the jellyfish could transform itself back into a polyp (its earliest stage of development) "thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality." Recently, studies have found that the reason that these jellyfish start to age in reverse is caused by some sort of environmental stress or physical assault. However, the most incredible thing about this whole story is that "Reversing the Life Cycle" barely got any recognition outside of the academic world.

Image from The New York Times

I found this article fascinating because I cannot believe such a creature exists yet hardly anybody knows about it. How have we not funded more research into finding out how this creature never dies?? You would think that humans, who are always looking for a way to extend our lives, would be totally invested in discovering this species' secrets of immortality. I would be very interested to see where this leads and if this jellyfish can help humans unlock the secrets of immortality.

Article: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
Written by: Nathaniel Rich
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?ref=science