The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature.
Marine biologists say the jellyfish numbers are rocketing because they need not die.
Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute said: “We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion.”
The jellyfish are originally from the Caribbean but have spread all over the world.
Turritopsis Nutricula is technically known as a hydrozoan and is the only known animal that is capable of reverting completely to its younger self.
It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.
Scientists believe the cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it potentially immortal.
While most members of the jellyfish family usually die after propagating, the Turritopsis nutricula has developed the unique ability to return to a polyp state.
Having stumbled upon the font of eternal youth, this tiny creature which is just 5mm long is the focus of many intricate studies by marine biologists and geneticists to see exactly how it manages to literally reverse its aging process.
[ source ]
Somebody ate rice cereal for the first time today!
(I think I still have some in my hair.)
Lily got sick last night. =/ She was a little fussy in the evening, woke up at about 3.30am coughing, and had a river of snot on her face when she got up this morning. Ted and I got her a Winnie the Pooh humidifier (very cute — the steam comes out of Pooh’s ears), and she’s sound asleep at the moment.
She so friggin’ cute right now, I can hardly stand it.
I’m exhausted. Ted and I are still recovering from our rumbas with the flu, and I’m feeling a little burnt. I’ve been so busy lately that I can hardly see straight. All I want to do is sit on the couch and stare at the tv.
I think I’ll do exactly that until Little Miss Lilith wakes up.
Every harlot was a virgin once. – William Blake
Meanwhile Cupid, eaten up with love, looking ill, and dreading his mother’s new-found austerity, became himself again. On swift wings he made his way to the very summit of heaven and pleaded his cause as a suppliant with great Jupiter. Jupiter took Cupid’s face in his hand, pulled it to his own, and kissed him, saying: ‘In spite of the fact, dear boy, that you have never paid me the respect decreed me by the gods in council, but have constantly shot and wounded this breast of mine by which the behaviour of the elements and the movements of the heavenly bodies are regulated, defiling it repeatedly with lustful adventures on earth, compromising my reputation and character by low intrigues in defiance of the laws, the Lex Julia included, and of public morals, changing my majestic features into the base shapes of snakes, of fire, of wild animals, of birds and of farmyard beasts — yet in spite of all, remembering my clemency and that you grew up in my care, I will do what you ask. But you must take care to guard against your rivals; and if there is now any pre-eminently lovely girl on earth, you are bound to pay me back with her for this good turn.
Neat! I just love stuff like this.
“Contrary to popular opinion, even among some historians who should know better, Martha was not fat when she married George. Yes, she liked to read the Bible, but she devoured gothic romance novels, too. She capably ran the five plantations left to her when her first husband died, bargaining with London merchants for the best tobacco prices. And unknown to most, while George was courting her she had another suitor, a Virginia planter with much greater wealth and stature. In a little-known letter, Charles Carter wrote to his brother about what a beauty she was and how he hoped to “arouse a flame in her breast.”
“He was clearly sexually excited by her,” said Patricia Brady, a historian who wrote the first revisionist biography of Martha a few years ago. “When Martha decided to marry George, she didn’t marry him just to be a kind stepfather to her two children. He was a hunk, and I think she decided to make herself happy. People are just starting to see her as a real person.”
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Is it just me, or does Martha Washington look a lot like Helen Hunt?
