I heard five short raps on the door - the official government knock. I swam up to the surface of the water and put my arms over the edge of the aquarium.
"COME IN!" I shouted.
Commander Herondale opened the door and surveyed the room. Adjusting his jacket, he coughed.
"How is the experiment going, Dr. Lightwood? President Fray wants the pill done soon. He instructed me to come and check on the progress," said Commander Herondale smugly.
His hard, grey eyes glinted as he watched me climb out of the aquarium.
"Oh it'll be done soon, Commander Herondale. It's about 49% done. I was just getting the DNA samples of the turritopsis dohrnii." I told Commander Herondale.
Nodding firmly, he left the room.
I climbed back into the aquarium with my equipment and dived in. With my sting-proof swim gear, I boldly swam up to the turritopsis dohrnii.
The turritopsis dohrnii is, in layman terms, the immortal jellyfish. It begins its life as free-swimming tiny larvae known as planula. As a planula settles down, it gives rise to a colony of polyps, tiny animals that are attached to the sea floor. Each polyp has a ring of tentacles shaped like a cup around a central opening. The tentacles are like long arms with tips that can sting. The polyps then form into a branch-like form. Jellyfish then bud off these polyps and continue their life in a free-swimming form, eventually becoming sexually mature. If a mature jellyfish is exposed to environmental stress or physical assault, or is sick or old, it can revert to the polyp stage, forming a new polyp colony. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation, which alters the cells and transforms them into new types of cells. Theoretically, the immortal jellyfish never dies due to sickness or old age. It was an area worth researching and the DNA structure of the cells of the turritopsis dohrnii could lengthen the lifespan of humans greatly.
I plucked off one of the tentacles off the turritopsis dohrnii. The turritopsis dohrnii swam away as I climbed out of the aquarium to the laboratory. I was finally ready to extract the DNA out off the tentacle.
