The Immortal Jellyfish: Cloning Without Aging

-        19-11-2018

-        When we used to swim at the beautiful Al-Hudaydah city beach ......the brave.....in happy Yemen...which will recover its health ...God willing ....in the late 1980s...we were warned not to approach...some beaches because of the presence of jellyfish...we did not know them. and we had never seen them!!..until one day when we were swimming...I felt a sting or an electric current that shocked me ...I felt a quick sting...and immediately I thought ..and remembered the jellyfish....and I was certain that I had to escape.!!.I came out terrified from the water toward the shore...and the sting was like the blink of an eye but it was not strong..and I began to examine my upper body..naked and there were the marks of that fleeting sting...like the marks of being hit by a stick and it had an effect on the body ..most of my upper body was reddened...a redness as if, as I said, it had been struck by a stick in several places on the body...and I felt a tingling like an electric current...quick..and I consulted with divers there we knew ..one of them said you survived, Director!! .and there is no need to worry. Go to the pharmacy (which they call in Al-Hudaydah in Yemen "اجزاخانة") and buy an ointment ..special..the pharmacist knows it..and that's it..you escaped certain death. Praise God for your safety!!.. And I learned that some people die ..from jellyfish stings near the seashores...and I informed ..the military in the area to try to contact the Marine Authority of Ports..to put signs and tapes indicating such areas where swimming should be prohibited..and I do not know what happened after that....for I never returned to that area at all..!!
One of my sons told me about information he came across in his studies about a "immortal jellyfish" that does not die..so I began searching for information ...from several sources about such creatures ....and here I am writing to you about the immortal jellyfish..which reminds me of the immortality of some elderly people when their teeth fall out in the stage of old age in their nineties. Baby teeth emerge, which the elders used to call "milk teeth" meaning this elder's return to the stage of childhood..!..I wanted to share this information with you ..perhaps .that there are immortal peoples from the jellyfish species.....!! Glory be to God...

-        Jellyfish (Jellyfish) ...marine creatures. Invertebrates. Classified among the cnidarian mollusks...and they are classified as animals..there are more than 10,000 species. They are among the oldest animals on Earth as their existence period is more than 500 million years according to estimates of geology experts and environmental scientists....and most of them emit and produce light..to help them attract prey or resist predators...they have long thin appendages called "looms". Their length reaches more than 27 meters in one species of jellyfish called the "Lion’s mane" jellyfish..A jellyfish does not contain a head nor a digestive system only intestines that receive food...its mouth opening is in the middle ..it has no right or left side....and no respiratory system..as its body absorbs oxygen from the water through its thin transparent skin..some species are capable of cloning..and if a jellyfish is subjected to an accident and split into two halves..then both halves are capable of growing and regenerating into complete jellyfish...

-        Jellyfish generally live short lives from a few hours to less than a year in most species..
As for the immortal jellyfish, scientifically named (Turritopsis Dohrnii), which exists in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea...and in the waters of Japan..it is a jellyfish that does not die except by an external factor..the life of these immortal jellyfish does not pass through a stage of senescence in their growth..rather they begin as an egg, then develop into a small larva then swim to inhabit the sea floor ..then grow and develop to become a colony of polyps..these polyps spawn genetically identical independent jellyfish that grow and reach maturity within weeks...so the life stages of this immortal jellyfish, which does not exceed 5 mm in diameter...go through a pre-maturity stage then a maturity stage..then it returns to the childhood stage (pre-maturity)...without completing the stage of old age..like other living organisms...

-        Its shape is like a bell with an outer transparent gelatinous cover..it has an extraordinary ability to survive...and when exposed to danger or injury or severe hunger it returns to the previous stage in its life cycle...which is the "polyp" stage and the polyp colony born again spawns jellyfish genetically identical to the injured jellyfish...this type of jellyfish does not die. That is, it lives forever....except if it is killed...this creature hatches then grows until it reaches full maturity ..like all organisms ...but instead of passing after youth and adulthood into the stage of old age....in which degradation and then death occur...this creature returns itself to the childhood stage once again and becomes a polyp to begin a new life cycle with the same body...!!! And this animal reproduces asexually (that is, without the need for male and female)....!!

-        This species was discovered in 1883 by August Weismann!..however no laboratory research was conducted on it until 1990...when scientists took interest in this animal and its growth stages, reproduction and life immortality..to use such processes in medicine to recycle cells that allow replacing some of them that are damaged as a result of diseases ...!!

-        Scientific research is still ongoing...and I heard that there are Arab researchers among them..perhaps some rulers from the Arabs sent them because these rulers dream and strive for immortality..God knows...😁..!! Glory be to God the Magnificent Creator..!!.