Do you want to live forever?

One of my students pointed out this story on Turritopsis nutricula, a hydrozoan (Phylum Cnidaria) which can revert to the polyp stage from the adult medusa form. The process can apparently be repeated over and over again, making T. nutricula, for all intents and purposes, immortal. As you might imagine, this abilty had made them the subject of serious interest on those biologists interested in slowing or reversing the process of development and aging.

Actually, the process is poorly understood. Laboratory studies have shown that all stages of the medusa can revert to the polyp form. The process, however, takes place very rapidly and has never been observed in nature. Truth is, the prospects of immortality for an individual are pretty low, given that they experience high rates of predation. Still, the ability to start over at any point is a pretty effective tool to have in one's life history toolbox.

That's the good news. The bad news is that this unique ability, coupled with the anthropogenic contribution of spreading the little guys across the globe through ballast water, has turned T. nutricula into a serious invader around the world ocean.

Thanks, Chris.