Scientists Create Artificial Jellyfish Using Rat Cells

 
 
In what is surely in the running for the most badass research project of all time, a team of scientists has reverse-engineered a jellyfish by using cells from a rat’s heart muscle, resulting in the world’s first synthetic jelly.

“Morphologically, we’ve built a jellyfish. Functionally, we’ve built a jellyfish. Genetically, this thing is a rat,” says Kit Parker, a biophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. The project is described today in Nature Biotechnology.”

Synthetic biology might be hands-down the most exciting discipline in the physical sciences right now. See the artificial medusoid for yourself below.
 

External link: Artificial jellyfish built from rat cells

Feature image credit: Jellyfish Invasion by RJFos