Bioengineers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology say they were able to create a "pseudo-organism" from living rat muscle cells and silicone membrane.
The jellyfish "Medusoid" is a natural biological pump like the human heart and floats around an aquarium tank. The next step will be to grow a "brain" for the artificial fish that it can repond to its environment.
"I was surprised that with relatively few components -- a silicone base and cells that we arranged -- we were able to reproduce some pretty complex swimming and feeding behaviors that you see in biological jellyfish," says professor John Dabiri.
