Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

97 pointsposted 9 hours ago
by hhs

19 Comments

zerobees

5 hours ago

This is a press release from a marine research organization, so the main implication here isn't that they're doing it because it's in any way relevant to humans. They're doing it because it's a cool thing for a marine research organization to research.

Yes, it's probably not gonna help humans, unless some of your friends are gelatinous blobs with no circulatory or nervous system and with a lifespan measured in months.

heiejdn283

43 minutes ago

Novo Nordisk might challenge the idea that application follows directly from research objectives

hsbauauvhabzb

4 hours ago

What about if they exhibit three out of four of those symptoms?

wxw

4 hours ago

> The medusa, the free-swimming form most people picture when they hear the term jellyfish, is only one stage of the animal’s life cycle.

> We tend to think of the flower—or the jellyfish—as the organism, but these are actually reproductive units.

I'll never look at jellyfish the same.

psychoslave

an hour ago

I mean, all in all, most life forms are reproductive unit in some stage, or part of i, from the species point of view. Though some individual prove sterile.

Eleg007

4 hours ago

The title seems like clickbait for a super medical cream.

Hard_Space

10 minutes ago

Agreed. I always hated the 'two part', 'payoff'-based drama of titles like these, even before the LLM era. If it was lazy before (it was), it now comes off as 'one-click' lazy. Sadly, The Guardian has become infested with this style lately.

UltraSane

7 hours ago

Don't they have the advantage of having very simple tissue?

packetlost

7 hours ago

They're not even technically one organism, but colonies of independent but mostly specialized organisms. I'd be willing to bet that has something to do with the articles title

andsoitis

6 hours ago

True jellyfish (like moon jellies, box jellyfish)are a single organism, just like you or me. Theres a single genome and one body.

Portuguese man o’ war is not a single organism at all but a siphonophore, a colony of many genetically identical but specialized individual organisms called zooids, all fused together and functionally dependent on each other.

sophrosyne42

5 hours ago

Whats the difference between a siphonophore and a single organism? Aren't all the organs of an organism genetically identical, specialized, fused together, and functionally dependent on each other?

timschmidt

4 hours ago

It's a very fuzzy line. But according to The Octopus Lady's video in the other comment, it's because separating them from the other zooids doesn't result in immediate death. They may die later due to lack of ability to swim, or eat, but that is a secondary cause which is considered important.

karim79

6 hours ago

At first glance I imagined this was a magic way to heal a wound by rubbing a jellyfish on it. Skin irritation be damned, this is gonna save lives.

But no. No such joy.

dspnc

6 hours ago

TL/DR: be made of jelly

piusk

6 hours ago

how does this work, when they just sting

14

5 hours ago

Nothing in the article mentioned stinging I am confused what you are asking ?