Scientists have been able to control a specific type of jellyfish and its movements and made it even swim faster than the actual thing.
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Using implants were a big help
Researchers have been able to achieve this scientific break-through by using a microelectronic implant in a moon jellyfish, also known as Aurelia Aurita, according to Science Alert. The publication said the researchers are using, "twice the amount of metabolic effort from the aquatic invertebrate." Hugely increased the natural swimming speed of a live moon jellyfish by nearly threefold.
This biohybrid uses 10 to 1,000 times less power externally per mass than other aquatic robots that have been reported in books and literature.
But why use a Jellyfish?
Jellyfish are scientifically known to be astonishingly efficient swimmers, much more than any machine the human species have ever created. This generally makes them an ideal subject. According to the report, "Because jellyfish are naturally found in a wide range of salinities, temperatures, oxygen concentrations, and depths including 3,700 m 12,100 feet or deeper in the Mariana Trench, these biohybrid robots also have the potential to be deployed throughout the world's oceans,"
While some robots that try so hard to mime the behavior of a jellyfish, this all require external power that needs to supply and order magnitude, real jellyfish are capable of self-healing and are free by anything whatsoever.
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This discovery can help progress mankind to monitor the ocean
The essential key of this small but very compelling and important step is a portable microelectronic swim controller, which, can generate pulse waves and can generally stimulate muscle contractions while it is attached to the jellyfish, and through this technology, scientists and researchers can eminently speed up a jellyfish's horsepower until it comes to an optimal point, where the greatest speed is achieved with only the smallest energy needed, and by using the metabolism and muscles of the jellyfish in this preferred type of way, scientists have controlled the creature's moving speed to 2.8 times faster than the jellyfish's natural swimming speed.
These researchers hope that their work and discovery can lead to newer oceanic vehicles that can one day, in the future, help explore for longer periods of time, while also making very less disruption wherever they may venture off, and with some more tweaking, there can be a chance where humans will be able to use real jellyfish to study and map out the ocean, the same way we currently use tagged mammals.
This discovery and scientific break-through can widely help the progress of humanity in learning to study the ocean and help other people know more about what lies under the depths of the big blue.
