What if you turn jellyfish into a cyborg and do marine research?

A research team from California Institute of Technology and Stanford University succeeded in acting freely by stimulation by an electronic pulse mounted on a jellyfish. Based on this, in the future, they are considering adding sensors to jellyfish to track the water temperature, salt, and oxygen levels in the sea.

Jellyfish wearing devices, for example, with pacemakers, control the heart rate and move the jellyfish veins faster. Small thorns made of wood, about 2cm in diameter, are embedded in jellyfish, and they are said to have no pain in the brain and pain.

Jellyfish secrete mucus when they feel stressed, but since this did not happen in the experiment, they found that there was no stimulation enough to feel stressed. It is also restored when the device is removed. In the experiment, 0.5Hz stimulation is given without stimulation to make it move faster. Jellyfish, which usually swim 2cm per second, are said to have moved up to 4-6cm per second due to stimulation.

Of course, because jellyfish are battery-free creatures, they can turn an individual into an efficient sensor. For example, even if you move freely at a speed three times faster than usual, the energy consumption is twice as much as usual. Since it does not require a battery, it can be said to be 1,000 times more efficient compared to a swimming robot.

In fact, it is said that only 10-50% of the volume of the ocean on Earth was investigated. Jellyfish are ubiquitous creatures, so the research team tries to investigate the unknown part of the sensors equipped with electron pulses by sending them to the remaining 90% of the area. To this end, we aim to develop a device that is small enough to be installed on jellyfish. If such a plan is successful, it may become possible to cyborg jellyfish. Related information can be found here .