• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Sleeping Jellyfish

Sleeping Jellyfish

September 27, 2017
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/170927_sciup_jelly.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

Multiple Cassiopea jellyfish on the bottom of a tank. LGoentoro
BOB HIRSHON (host): Multiple Cassiopea jellyfish on the bottom of a tank. (L. Goentoro)

Snoozing jellyfish. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

A typical day for the Cassiopea jellyfish consists of sitting upside down on the seafloor, trailing its tentacles in the currents.

RAGI NATH (California Institute of Technology):

It sits in place, and it pulses, and that’s pretty much its behavioral repertoire.

HIRSHON:

That’s Caltech biologist Ravi Nath. He and his colleagues report in the journal Current Biology that despite its low-key lifestyle and lack of a brain, Cassiopea sleeps each night, pulsing more gently, ignoring stimuli and, if deprived of sleep, acts groggy and impaired. The discovery raises questions about the nature of sleep.

NATH:

Is sleep a property of neurons? Or is sleep a property of complex circuits? How complex of a system do you need before you start seeing something sleep?

HIRSHON:

He says discovering sleep’s evolutionary origins will help scientists better understand the phenomenon in us. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Story by Bob Hirshon

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Biology, Wildlife
Previous Post:Restoring the California Condor
Next Post:Soy & Mussel Adhesives

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos