Features Podcasts Family Video Comics Music Tech Science Books Film & TV Games ✚

Jill

Jellyfish engineered with 12 heads

David Pescovitz at 1:49 pm Thu, Aug 2, 2007

— FEATURED —

Science

Last chance to enter the Armchair Taxonomist challenge!

Book Review

We Can Fix it! - a graphic novel time travel memoir

Science

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Book Review

Odd Duck: great picture book about eccentricity and ducks

— FOLLOW US —

Boing Boing is on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email.

 

— POLICIES —

Except where indicated, Boing Boing is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution

 

— FONTS —

Tweet
Kindle
Biologists have genetically engineered jellyfish to have up to 12 heads. (Seen here is dual-headed specimen.) To alter the organisms so dramatically, the scientists from the Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine tweaked the genes that determine body shape. From LiveScience:
 J Msnbc Components Photos 070801 070801 Jelly Hmed 11A.Hmedium Animals with many heads are rare in nature, suggesting that two or more heads usually aren't better than one – having more than one head results in costs with no immediate matching benefits.

However, (researcher Bernd) Schierwater noted that corals, which are animals, often form colonies by adding heads to a common stalk, each of which connect to a common gut, just as with the modified jellyfish that the researchers created.
Link

Previously on BB:
• Jellyfish toxin produces erections Link
• Jellyfish's stinger-firing captured on video Link

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor