Moon jellyfish’s symmetrical impulse could inspire self-healing robots

A jellyfish which rearranges its limbs if one of them is lost could provide the blueprint for self-healing robots. Researchers from the California Institute of Technology have been studying the moon jellyfish, which is unlike most others. While a typical jellyfish can regenerate a lost appendage, the moon jellyfish rearranges its limbs so it retains its symmetry. To simulate injury similar to that caused by a predator in the wild, the team performed amputations on anaesthetised jellyfish to produce animals with two, three, four, five, six, or seven arms, rather than the usual eight.

Symmetrisation may provide a new avenue for thinking about biomaterials that could be designed to ‘heal’ by regaining functional geometry rather than regenerating precise shapes.

Assistant professor of biology Lea Goentoro

They then returned the jellyfish to artificial seawater, and monitored the tissue response. Instead of regenerating new limbs, the jellyfish simply rearranged existing limbs to become symmetrical again. Assistant professor of biology Lea Goentoro said: “This is a different strategy of self-repair. Some animals just heal their wounds, other animals regenerate what is lost, but the moon jelly ephyrae (juveniles) don’t regenerate their lost limbs. "They heal the wound, but then they reorganise to regain symmetry.”

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