The Jellyfish That Ages Backward to Escape Death

Turritopsis dohrnii is the size of a pinky nail. When it's starving, injured or old, it melts into a blob and regrows as a juvenile polyp - then does it all again, potentially forever.

by rbtholeOct 18, 2026
  1. Meet Turritopsis dohrnii

    The biologically immortal jellyfish: how a 4.5mm medusa can revert to its polyp stage through cellular reprogramming.

  2. The Incredible Way This Jellyfish Goes Back in Time

    Real Science breaks down transdifferentiation - the process that lets damaged cells rewind into a younger form.

  3. How Its Immortality Was Discovered by Accident

    The Natural History Museum tells how students in the 1980s left Turritopsis polyps in a dish and watched adults turn young again.

  4. How Jellyfish Have Survived 500 Million Years

    TED-Ed on why jellyfish - older than dinosaurs, brainless and boneless - are among evolution's great survivors.

  5. The Science of a Creature With 'Infinite Power'

    Marine scientists at Spain's CSIC on what the jellyfish's enhanced DNA repair might reveal about aging.

  6. Chasing the Jellyfish That Holds a Key to Immortality

    A documentary on Shin Kubota, the eccentric Japanese scientist who has devoted his life to studying this animal.

  7. Is It Really Possible to Live Forever?

    The Natural History Museum weighs the limits of 'immortality' - predators, disease, and why the jellyfish can still die.

More rabbit holes

All rabbit holes