It's essentially a primitive cyborg. i.e. a fusion of technology and biology.
It's not sentient and it doesn't feed or breed so it doesn't qualify as a species.
Still, scary science. Fascinating, but still scary science.
That Designer to whom the spouters of intelligent design hogwash refer--who does s/he pray to? What mysteries does s/he look at and say, "That is beyond my ability to understand?"
Faith is the acceptance of our limitations. We are the gods.
This is a pale imitation of life. It's no more a jellyfish than a submarine is a fish. It's just a machine. When they can get it to eat, shit and breed I'll be impressed.
While this is a cute idea, has potential for further development, and serves the always-useful purpose of capturing the imagination and attention of the lay public, it's rather unfortunate that they chose to characterize it as a "jellyfish."
Cells of many types are easily grown in liquid culture medium and adhere to a solid or flexible substrate; cardiac myocytes are known to contract spontaneously. Here they got the cells to grow on a surface shaped to produce unidirectional motion when bent and released, and they coordinated the cellular contractions by passing electric current through the liquid.
But there is no nervous system or sensory organ; no ability to purposefully orient in a particular direction, toward light or food or others of its kind; no capacity to evade predators or capture any nutrient source possessed of its own ability to flee; it cannot reproduce itself. All of those, and more, are things a jellyfish can do.
It's not sentient and it doesn't feed or breed so it doesn't qualify as a species.
Still, scary science. Fascinating, but still scary science.
That Designer to whom the spouters of intelligent design hogwash refer--who does s/he pray to? What mysteries does s/he look at and say, "That is beyond my ability to understand?"
Faith is the acceptance of our limitations. We are the gods.
Still, fucking cool!
Cells of many types are easily grown in liquid culture medium and adhere to a solid or flexible substrate; cardiac myocytes are known to contract spontaneously. Here they got the cells to grow on a surface shaped to produce unidirectional motion when bent and released, and they coordinated the cellular contractions by passing electric current through the liquid.
But there is no nervous system or sensory organ; no ability to purposefully orient in a particular direction, toward light or food or others of its kind; no capacity to evade predators or capture any nutrient source possessed of its own ability to flee; it cannot reproduce itself. All of those, and more, are things a jellyfish can do.
:)