Rejuvenation

In 1991, a group of European scientists announced at an academic conference that they found a potentially immortal Scarlet medusa is the only known multicellular animal which can rejuvenate. This tiny and fragile jellyfish floating in the sea may have an eternal life and stirred up the biological community. Since then, many researchers have challenged to elucidate the secret of rejuvenation. Recently this immortal medusa was introduced in the New York Times Magazine and has gotten worldwide attention, accompanying with the research of Shin Kubota, Dr Sci. This short novel is written by one of the leading figures of scarlet medusa research, Associate Professor Shin Kubota at Kyoto University, describing hope and suffering of a man who finds the secret of rejuvenation. Although this story is just a science fiction at present, human beings may have to face the problem of eternal life in the near future. About Scarlet Medusa, Turritopsis The only multicellular animal which can perform an inversion of life history, so-called a SF phenomenon that a butterfly turns into a caterpillar, from an adult jellyfish free-floating in the sea (= butterfly) to the young polyps (= caterpillar) living on the seafloor in response to stress, aging, a serious illness and fatal accident, etc. Dr. Shin Kubota demonstrated the world record of ten successive rejuvenation cycles. The rejuvenation can be repeated, in theory, in eternity. Scarlet medusae belong to the phylum Cnidaria, the same taxonomic group as corals and sea anemones. As the name implies, it is a carnivore loaded with numerous nematocysts (cnidas) on tentacles, which are used to hunt small animals, but they are not always poisonous enough to harm people. Scarlet medusae are distributed in warm waters around the world, and different species inhabit in different areas. In Japan there are three species, a large one and two small ones; the former nurtures offspring and the others do not take care of the eggs.