The
health scientists were overjoyed. After over twenty years of
laboratory experimenting, and countless setbacks, they had discovered
the Turritopsis Dohrnii,
one
kind of ocean jellyfish among about threehundred-thousand kinds.
In
the ocean wild, some species of jellyfish have a natural lifespan of
a few hours; some 18 months. In captivity, some live up to 20 years.
At
youngest, some jellyfish are as small as a grain of rice; at
maturity, less than half an inch. Some at maturity are 120 feet long
and 8 feet wide.
Jellyfish
have inhabited the world’s oceans millions of years before
there were dinosaurs. All kinds of jellyfish are edible to humans.
All
jellyfish have tentacles. The final number of tentacles is different
among species; and changes within a species through the different
stages to adult maturity. Some jellyfish have as little as four
tentacles; some have thousands. All tentacles have cells with
stinging chemicals injected into prey to be eaten, or, in self
defence, into enemy attackers.
For
the scientists, the most important fact about a jellyfish is that a
few kinds, when traumatized by
illness, or under attack by predators, or old age, or accidental
injury, or extreme changes in ocean temperature or salinity, can
revert themselves into an earlier body age when there was no trauma.
That is, in times of stress that kind of jellyfish at five years old
is able to instantly become what it was in body at one year old.
This
is an ability that a jellyfish can resort to in only emergency times.
Among
jellyfish, the Turritopsis Dohrnii is the only kind that has this
ageing backwards ability throughout its lifespan. In other words, as
long as it can avoid being eaten by predators and sudden death by
accident, the Turritopsis Dohrnii can live forever. Hence its
unscientific other name given it by scientists, the immortal
jellyfish.
So
far, it is the only life form on our planet that is known to be
naturally equipped all its life with this capacity for biological
immortality.
When
it was discovered that the Turritopsis Dohrnii’s ability to
deliberately devolve into an earlier age is lodged in the stinging
chemical in its tentacle cells only, the scientists set about finding
a way to use this chemical to treat incurable diseases in humans.
Funding,
Government and other, poured in continually for decades.
If
an ill person could be made to transmute themself into a younger age
before the onset of the illness, at that earlier age free of the
illness, preventive measures could be applied.
Even
more exciting was the discovery that the Turritopsis Dohrnii’s
DNA differs from human DNA by less than one-percent.
How
this is possible could seem to be a mystery, since in outward
physical appearance, the Turritopsis Dohrnii and humans have nothing
in common.
Since
there are so many similarities between us and Chimpanzees, we are not
surprised that a human’s DNA is 98.7% the same as a
Chimpanzee’s; differing by only 1.3%. In other words,
genetically speaking, a human is not just like an ape; a human is an
ape.
In
nature, similarity of outward visible appearance is not necessarily
indication or requirement of genetic parity.
Adult
butterflies look nothing like the caterpillars out of which they
metamorphose, and yet their genetics are exactly the same.
The
adult moth looks nothing like its larva, in outward appearance. The
fruit fly, nothing like its maggot.
Genetically,
we are closer to Turritopsis Dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, than we
are to the Chimpanzee. In other words, if by its genetic count, a
Chimpanzee is within a human family, it cannot be closer than a
cousin because Turritopsis Dohrnii’s DNA count renders it as
close to a human as a human identical twin. The DNA percentage
sameness between identical human twins is, like the Turritopsis
Dohrnii’s, less than one percent.
The
wild-card possibility was that the Dohrnii’s stinger chemical
inserted into another animal’s DNA could mistake remnants of an
earlier species for memory traces of the animal’s youth. That
mistake would mean there was a fifty-fifty possibility the ill
person’s next step down would be a reversion to an earlier
species instead of to an earlier body age of its own self.
In
the species option, that, probably, for a person would mean
Chimpanzee. After Chimpanzee, the next animal closest to us in the
evolution sequence is much, farther down the natural evolution
ladder. The rat; with whom we have 85% the same DNA.
After
all, it is common knowledge among scientists that if not for their
large size, Chimpanzees would be the more logical and productive
laboratory surrogate-human experimentation tool than rats and mice.
Inexplicably,
so far, ongoing sequencing of the human genome has not identified
traces of Turritopsis Dohrnii in our species- evolution climb.
Laboratory
experiments established that injecting the Turritopsis Dohrnii
tentacle stinger chemical into animals low down the DNA evolution
ladder, where confusion of earlier-species with earlier- body-age is
virtually non existent, produced retroversion every time: butterflies
reverted to their caterpillar forms; moths to their larvae forms;
fruit flies to their maggot forms.
Because
of the successes in their work with lower species, the scientists
were not daunted by the many years, possibly, it would take to find a
way to accurately direct the Turritopsis Dohrnii stinger tentacle
chemical, injected into the human deoxyribonucleic acid, to hone in
on the younger-age sequence, and to bypass an earlier-species
sequence.
However,
a sudden drastic downturn in world economics on account of suddenly
erupting wars worldwide, meant that there was imminent probability
that both Government and other funding would dry up if the scientists
did not produce conclusive dramatic results involving human health
within a few months.
The
scientists decided they had no choice but to fast-forward plans to
use humans in their experiments, instead of rats and mice.
The
scientists opened a free-food cafeteria for homeless persons.
The
main dish served was raw Turritopsis Dohrnii jellyfish tentacle soup,
unidentified as such and subtly blended in with sashimi and sushi,
those other two already well established worldwide raw-seafood elite
gourmet specialties.
As
was expected, the cafeteria was an instant huge success. The target
clientele poured in from many parts of the country. Success was
increasing so fast that the cunning expert chef-scientists, within
weeks, discontinued the blend of other seafoods. Other parts of the
Turritopsis Dohrnii were included in the soup. Free extra ketchup was
offered, made of concentrated Turritopsis Dohrnii tentacle stinger
chemical. The ketchup was truthfully labeled, “100% organic
spicy.”
Smoked,
spiced Turritopsis Dohrnii tentacles was the other popular demand,
offered simply as an optional general jellyfish side dish.
The
name Turritopsis Dohrnii was never used; a trades precaution against
theft of an imminent patentable reversion medicine.
So
crowded was the cafeteria each night, that some scientists suspected
that not all the diners were of the specifically targeted homeless
ilk.
The
City’s homeless population skyrocketed. Adjacent to the
laboratory, an informal housing settlement of hundreds and hundreds
of people sprang up, a considerable number of them, undoubtedly,
non-homeless shameless free-food skulking moochers.
Days
and nights, the optimistic though apprehensive scientists kept
diligent watch by surveillance cameras for the appearance of
bewildered young persons dressed the same as missing adults who
appeared in earlier surveillance films.
Totally
unpredictable natural disaster struck.
One
dark night in the early hours of a moonless night, an almightily
destructive and deafeningly noisy electric rainstorm erupted, replete
with frightening thunder and terrifying lightning; wall-to-wall, as
it were; so to speak.
The
laboratory and its informal settlement of thousands were completely
demolished and washed away, within minutes.
Among
the unfortunate people and animals swimming for their lives, was a
very large number of bewildered rats, clawing and biting their way
out of soggy human clothes.
Definitely
mysteriously, and, perhaps disappointingly, not even one Chimpanzee
in sight.
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