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Curious Cases

Immortal Jellies

Curious Cases

BBC

Technology, Science

4.84.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Could immortality ever be possible for humans? It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but floating in oceans around the world is a tiny, transparent jellyfish that could hold the answer...

Turritopsis dohrnii, known as 'the immortal jellyfish', isn’t immortal in the true sense of word - it can die - but it has a nifty way of avoiding that fate. In times of stress, this miniscule jelly can biologically reverse its aging process, reverting from 'medusa' (adult jellyfish) to a juvenile form and starting its life-cycle again; potentially ad infinitum.

Abilities like these could hold the key to - if not exactly 'immortality', then at least regenerative or long-life treatments for humans in future. But of course there's a catch: these extremely delicate jellyfish can still easily die from predation, disease, or environmental threats and are extremely difficult to keep healthy in a lab environment.

Hannah and Dara hear about new technology that could change the way we study immortal jellyfish, and discover various other super-abilities in the animal kingdom that could help in our quest for healthier, longer lives.

Contributors: - Miranda Lowe, Principal Curator of Crustacea and Cnidaria at London’s Natural History Museum - Alex Cagan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics, Department of Pathology and Department of Vet Medicine at the University of Cambridge - Maria Pia Miglietta, Associate Professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University in Galveston - Nicole Xu, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Robotics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Producer: Lucy Taylor Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem A BBC Studios Production

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it.

0:13.3

But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go?

0:19.2

I remember having this very sharp thought that what you do right now, this is it.

0:24.3

This defines your life.

0:26.0

I'm ready to talk and ready to listen.

0:28.3

I'm insulted by how little the medical community is ever bothered with this.

0:33.9

Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard, is my new podcast.

0:37.0

Listen on BBC Sounds. You're about to listen to a brand

0:40.3

new episode of Curious Cases. Shows are going to be released weekly, wherever you get your podcast. But if

0:45.2

you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds. I'm Hannah Fry. And I'm Dara O'Brien. And this is Curious Cases. The show will we take

0:57.9

your quirkiest questions? Your crudious conundrums. And then we solve them. With the power of

1:02.3

science. I mean, do we always solve them? I mean, the hit rate's pretty low. But it is with

1:07.2

science. It is with science.

1:15.4

If you were given the chance, would you want to live forever?

1:16.0

Oh, God, no.

1:16.8

Really?

1:18.5

Yeah, I mean, no debate about that at all.

1:19.1

Fat, no.

1:19.8

No, straight, no.

1:21.3

You get one spin around.

1:23.2

Philosophically, I'm very happy with that.

...

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