Scientist have created an artificial jellyfish that uses heart cells from a rat to propel itself though the water.

No bigger than a 1p coin, the bioengineered machine mimics the swimming style of a baby jellyfish by contracting its synthetic body into a bell shape to generate forward thrust.

Researchers at California Institute of Technology and Harvard University built the ‘medusoid’, named after medusa, a historic name for jellyfish, as a stepping stone towards a much grander aim: the construction of hearts to replace those damaged by disease.

Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, Kit Parker at Harvard and Janna Nawroth at Caltech, describe how they designed the medusoid after studying the movement of juvenile moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita).

Rather than the familar bell-shaped body of a mature jellyfish, the baby creatures have eight lobes that spread out from the centre like arms. To make the artificial jellyfish, the scientists copied this design in silicone rubber and coated one side with living heart cells from rats. The surface of the silicone was patterned with proteins to ensure the heart cells took up the right positions. To make the medusoid swim, the scientists put it in a water bath and pulsed an electric current across […]