Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

mbl.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–49 of 49 posts

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#41

Post by saidnooneever »

pvaldes wrote: post #28
zerobees wrote: post #14

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…

Clytia is not just your normal jellyfish, is an organism that alternates between a jellyfish and a polyp that live in small colonies, not unlike corals but less complex and without hard calcified skeletons. Is also in the same group that has the only animals known to be potentially immortal. I'm not joking. This things exist. So the word "heal" here can mean different things than people expects. Imagine that as we gr…

very interesting insights! thanks!

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#42

Post by pvaldes »

sophrosyne42 wrote: post #12
andsoitis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

its anatomy

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#43

Post by metalman »

Jellyfish, bieng transparent and without a brain, dont have any secrets, and instantainious wound healing might be the compensation for that, or price, but by all accounts they have managed to get by more or less as they are, for 700 million years and so will likely be availible for further observation, for as long as we manage to stick around.

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#44

Post by thaumasiotes »

andsoitis wrote: post #7
packetlost wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Your comment has completely failed to distinguish "organisms" from "siphonophores". As you describe yourself, a siphonophore also has a single genome and one body.

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#45

Post by thaumasiotes »

timschmidt wrote: post #15
sophrosyne42 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

It's just a fact about the evolutionary history. You are a "multicellular" organism; you are composed of a bunch of genetically identical cells that fuse with each other and differentiate their development to specialize in certain tasks. It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that.

Siphonophores are identical, except that they can be subdivided into units that are, much like organs, composed of multiple cells. Those units can be identified as evolutionary derivations of certain branches of the tree of life. This is more similar to your mitochondria, which are (like zooids) identifiable as having once been independent organisms, though unlike zooids your mitochondria are not genetically identical to you.

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#46

Post by thaumasiotes »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #45
timschmidt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's just a fact about the evolutionary history. You are a "multicellular" organism; you are composed of a bunch of genetically identical cells that fuse with each other and differentiate their development to specialize in certain tasks. It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that. Siphonophores are identical, except that they can be subdivided into units that are, much like organs, composed of multiple…

> It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that.

Actually, it bears pointing out that significant parts of you, like your blood, remain single-celled even though you're "multicellular".

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#47

Post by UltraSane »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #46
thaumasiotes wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a fact about the evolutionary history. You are a "multicellular" organism; you are composed of a bunch of genetically identical cells that fuse with each other and differentiate their development to specialize in certain tasks. It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that. Siphonophores are identical, except that they can be subdivided into units that are, much like organs, composed of multiple…

> It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that. Actually, it bears pointing out that significant parts of you, like your blood, remain single-celled even though you're "multicellular".

Immune system is mostly single cells

Re: Jellyfish can heal wounds in minutes. Scientists want their secrets

#49

Post by timschmidt »

UltraSane wrote: post #47
thaumasiotes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not just your organs; your entire being is like that. Actually, it bears pointing out that significant parts of you, like your blood, remain single-celled even though you're "multicellular".

Immune system is mostly single cells

True. And also amazing how complex their interactions can be! Just because immune cells are often individually motile, does not mean they're not intimately interoperating within an incredibly complex social ecology of cells. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_cell is full of surprises.
Post reply on HN