by 
Imagine you are an old person. You sit in your yard, drinking a warm cup of coffee as you see the sunrise. As the first rays of sunlight illuminate your home, you reflect on everything that you have gone through: every single choice that made you the person you are today. Those were the good old times. You had a good life, and now you want to spend your final days in peace. But what if, instead, you were given another option? What if you could go back? Sounds impossible, as that is not how it works with mere humans. However, we often forget we are not the only ones on the planet. Turns out Mother Nature has already developed this option — if you know where to look for it.
Meet Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the immortal jellyfish. As does any other jellyfish, they hatch from an egg, grow into a polyp, eventually reach sexual maturity, and the cycle will repeat itself. The only difference is that this little guy has one extra ability. When it is getting old enough, it can reverse its aging, transforming all the cells in its body into a commune of genetically identical polyps that will go and live through the whole cycle again.
These little guys live underwater, where most humans will never even see them. Most of us will never even know about their existence, yet these wondrous beings still exist out there. A ton of magnificent inventions that each do their own thing, defying the boundaries of what we, as humans, consider possible. Some of us even feel a deep call towards these impossibilities.
Some human specimens, ones with thriving curiosity, are fascinated with the intricacies of the world. They will go well outside their habitats just to take a look at all kinds of phenomena. They will observe it, analyze it, and record it. After a while, they will go back to their habitats and share what they collected with their fellow humans. These kinds of humans are what we know as scientists.
“Out of curiosity” is how scientists work. One does not go to the middle of the ocean to analyze jellyfish without curiosity. Students do not go to the other side of the country to take a look at plankton without curiosity. Every person I have met here at STEMSEAS shares this one thing. We have a deep sense of curiosity that makes us go out of our way to explore and discover the impossible. After all, in one way or another, we all are scientists.
-Adrián Martínez Félix
