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<center>**Introduction**<center>
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Merriam Webster defines immortality as the ability to exempt itself from death or the capability to divide indefinitely. Antagonists from several famous movies suggested Immortality is the greatest power of all, above wealth and love. Even the mythical Trojan prince Tithonus begged Zeus for immortality so he could live forever with Eos, the Goddess of Dawn. However Zeus took the request literally and granted him immortality but unfortunately, he still ages. After some time, Tithonus lost his good looks and became old. Eos left him, sadly. As the famous singer Zayn Malik’s I Don’t Wanna Live Forever chorus goes, "*I don't wanna live forever cause I know I'll be living in vain*" . There’s no point living forever this world if life is meaningless. The secret to eternal life is, actually the lack of maturity. 


The concept of immortality has been a hot topic for quite some time. I mean, who doesn’t want to live his or her life without worrying about death. There several animal species that exhibits this Immortality superpower. From studying their life cycle and the technique they have been performing to “avoid” death, we might be able to learn a thing or two. Escaping death might be a long shot for us but trying to aim the best possible quality of life is the outcome that all of us could settle for. Paradoxical to the term immortality, these creatures do actually die but they don’t age. Tithonus should have think twice before deciding his very wish. 

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## **The Good Ol' Clam**
The Ocean Quahog or _Antartica islandica_ is a species of edible clam and native to the North Atlantic Ocean. Ming the Mollusk is the oldest verified solitary animal that is ever recorded with the age of 507 years old. Ming has made the Ocean Quahog species famous. It was named after the Chinese dynasty on the throne when its life began. How does the scientists determine the age of Ming? An Ocean Quahog’s shell grows layer by layer every year, similar to trees. That means scientists can cut it into half and count the lines. A research in 2012 found that the ocean quahog cells carry cell membranes which are resistant to oxidative damage. Luckily Ming has a biological clock embedded within the mollusk (the shell layers) as not many species have it. 

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## **Medusa has the Eye of Agamotto**
_Turritopsis dohrnii_ or more prominently called as the immortal jellyfish, is officially the only known immortal creature on earth. They are found in the waters of Japan and in the Mediterranean Sea. Ironically they are found mostly in Japan, the country with one of the longest population lifespan in the world. These Jellyfish are the only animal that is capable of reverting back to a sexually immature, colonial stage after reaching sexual maturity. 

<center>**Life Cycle**</center>
There are two distinct stages of this amazing creature’s life cycle: the polypoid and the medusa stage. 
<center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmNnHzxchbTcU8BrKZfe3YttiJzcCNJVArYjWoqsDDt1tf/image.png</center><center><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish#/media/File:Schleiden-meduse-2.jpg">Wikipedia</a></center>

<div class="pull-right"><center>https://steemitimages.com/DQmUcdhjF2ZbeRnwSaaiEdSYr9gdcCFjkT3HHnmJrin6W39/image.png<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/life-cycle-of-a-jellyfish-4112280">A Planula</a></center></div> 

The eggs are developed in the female medusa and fertilized by the sperms of male medusa in the open sea. The eggs grew into a planula, which is a free-swimming, flattened and ciliated larval form. They settle on the sea floor and develop into polyp colonies or hydroids. These polyp colonies thrive on the seafloor and begins to grow buddings. They will bud new jellyfishes and feed on planktons. These new jellyfishes, also known as medusae, become sexually active after a few weeks and the life cycle repeats.


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The term medusa which was coined by Linnaeus in 1752, is interestingly related to the infamous tentacle-headed Medusa in Greek Mythology. Gazers upon her face will be turn into stone. Insert Gloria Gaynor’s famous line - “At first I was afraid, I was petrified”. I visited Istanbul in February 2018. I’ve visited the famous Basilica Cistern which is also where the finale scene of the movie Inferno took place. I love Dan Brown’s books fyi. Inside the Basilica Cistern contains several historical statues of Medusa.  I’ve learnt about the history of Medusa there. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a girl with the name of Medusa. Medusa was a beautiful dark-haired maiden who fell in love with Perseus, son of Zeus. I’m relating so many Greek Mythology stories in this blog hahaha. Alright. Then it was known that Athena loves Perseus too. In jealousy, Athena the Goddess of Wisdom and War, transformed Medusa’s glorious hair into serpents and granted those serpents the ability to petrify whoever that sees it. Later, Medusa was then beheaded by Perseus. Not so much of a bedtime story eh? Moving on ~ 


### **So what makes this particular Jellyfish species so special?**
Research has shown that it has the ability to regress to its primordial form under extreme temperature changes, reduction of salinity, iatrogenic damage of the bell or starvation via metamorphosis. Yeap, just like how Caterpillars transform into Butterflies, but in reverse. Cool eh? Polyps were then formed after 2 days. They will further multiply and form hydroids or colonies of polyps. This process allows the species to bypass death, rendering it biologically immortal! 


So the next question would be..
### **Why aren’t they populating the earth right now?**

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Yes, they are biologically immortal. They do not age. However, they are not invincible towards predators and biological illnesses. They still need to take care of themselves. Nonetheless, they are now seen in new areas around the world despite their past elusiveness to just certain locations before. They are mostly transported via the infamous ballast water discharges by ships. Cruise ships, tankers and bulky cargo carriers usually hold a large amount of ballast water. Those ships discharge ballast waters after unloading its content at the destination port. The ballast water contains plants, animals, and microbes of the area where those ships previously loaded the water. The contents often cause ecological imbalance as the transported species are not native to the area and possibly invading the local species. One serious incident was back in Peru in 1991. Over 10 000 people were killed after ships came from Bangladesh and brought Vibrio Cholerae along with them. Symptoms of Cholera includes profuse, watery diarrhea which is caused by the cholera toxins. 

## **Long Live Hydra !!**

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The next organism in the list includes the Hydra. They are small, fresh-water organism which has a tubular shaped body. It has been suggested that Hydra does not undergo senescence or cellular aging. A 4-year study concludes that hydra did not show increase in mortality with age. 

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## **So what’s for human beings?**

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Our body cell divides via mitosis. In each cell division, the telomeres (which is a region of repetitive nucleotide at each end of the chromosome) are shortened because the replication process can’t reach to the very end of the chromosome. Scientists have found the culprits in this issue, which is Telomerases. This enzyme replaces the lost bits of DNA, making the creature that owns it immortal. In every light, there is darkness. The prime disadvantage of this telomerase is that, it helps tumour cells to grow and spread like nobody’s business. Cell death is a normal process to replace old and worn out cells. Tumour or cancerous cells have the ability to escape cell death and that is the reason why most tumours are bulky as they are not degraded by usual means. The famous HeLa cells were derived from a person named Henrietta Lacks on February 8, 1951. The discovery was a historical milestone as people were searching ways to maintain youth. The cell line was found to be quite durable and has the ability to proliferate rapidly, thanks to the existence of Telomerase within them. Sadly, Henrietta died of cervical cancer on October the same year. 

*** 

Extensive research is still ongoing to seek for the glorious elixir of life. Everything ages up eventually and who are we to defy the nature? Currently, the life expectancy of females and males are 81.2 and 76.4 years respectively. The number is getting better every year thanks to the blossoming healthcare services around the world. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 20% of the world population will be filled with elderly people, a grey population. Probably by that time human beings are still unable to metamorphosize back to our infant forms as how those immortal jellyfish does and perhaps we do not have the technology to plant Telomerases in our genes to avoid cell death like those in HeLa cells but you will never know.

# <center>**References**</center>
1) Bob Strauss. The Life Cycle Of A Jellyfish. Thoughtco. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from https://www.thoughtco.com/life-cycle-of-a-jellyfish-4112280
2) Collin Barass. The animals and plants that can live forever. The Big Question. BBC Earth. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150622-can-anything-live-forever
3) Claire Duffin. World's oldest creature was 507...but scientists killed it. Science News. The Telegraph. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10447117/Worlds-oldest-creature-was-507...but-scientists-killed-it.html
4) Lauren Said-Moorhouse. Does 'immortal' jellyfish have the secret to everlasting life?. The Art Of Movement. CNN. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/28/world/asia/can-immortal-jellyfish-unlock-everlasting-life/index.html?hpt=hp_c4
5) Ballast Water Discharge and the Environment. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballast_water_discharge_and_the_environment