You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious.

This is Brains On from MPR News and Southern California Public Radio.

I'm Molly Bloom. Today we're answering two questions that were sent to us from Charlie.

He's from Mercer Island, Washington.

My question for today is, what do jellyfish eat and why do they sing?

Well my mom told me a story about searching in jellyfish and I wondered why didn't I'm at Stingerhood.

To find out, we spoke to Rebecca Helm.

She studies jellyfish at Brown University.

She focuses on the jellyfish life cycle.

When I go to the beach and see a jellyfish on the shore, that's actually not what jellyfish

look like most of the time. When we think of jellyfish, we see a creature that has a bell-like

body with tentacles around the edge. But for most of their lives, that's not what they look like at all.

They spend much of their lives attached to the sea floor as little animals called polyps.

These polyps have a column-shaped body with a ring of small tentacles around a mouth at the end.

That polyp will go through a process of metamorphosis where it will sort of transform

into what looks like a little stack of tires. Each little ring will pop off and become a tiny jellyfish.

So that means each one of these tiny polyps ends up turning into many jellyfish.

One animal turns into many animals. Yeah, I know. Amazing.

That process is called strobellation, which is a pretty fun word to say.

Strobellation. Strobellation.

Strobellation. But these fascinating creatures are also dangerous.

All jellyfish sting. But very few jellyfish sting people. So there's the big difference.

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