00:00 Could this creature hold the key to living forever?
00:06 This is the Turritopsis Dorney, or what is more often called the immortal jellyfish.
00:10 They have been floating around the ocean for millions of years, and when they begin to
00:14 grow old or they get hurt, they have a cool little trick.
00:17 They reabsorb their tentacles and float down to the bottom of the sea, where they effectively
00:20 become a baby jellyfish once again, returning to their polyp stage.
00:25 Once there, they bud and produce new adult versions of themselves, exact recreations
00:29 of their previous adult form.
00:31 It's a wild life cycle, and experts say it's the only creature on the entire planet that
00:35 rejuvenates in this way after reproducing.
00:38 But how does it work?
00:39 Well, scientists are trying to figure that out, and they're already on the trail.
00:43 Researchers studying the immortal jellyfish's genome have already identified at least a
00:47 thousand of its genes related to DNA repair and aging.
00:50 And another study back in 2019 discovered that the adult and polyp versions of the jellyfish
00:56 had some cells which while the same, function differently, which they said at the time could
01:00 mean that some of their cells undergo a reprogramming of structural and functional commitment and
01:05 gene expression, or that they are sort of turned back and reset, just like a clock.
01:10 [music]
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