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The Life-Saving Gifts of the World's Most Venomous Animal (newyorker.com)
tedlistens writes: It was a terrible sting off the coast of Hawaii that inspired Angel Yanagihara, a biology researcher, to spend her life studying the bizarre culprit. Comprising some 50 species, box jellyfish are not like other jellyfish: they have 24 eyes, can move with intention and at surprising speed, and have something resembling a brain. They are also considered to be among the most venomous animals on Earth, killing more people every year than sharks do. Once inside the body, its venom acts "like buckshot" on blood cells. One species, the four-pound, nine-foot-long sea wasp, is said to have enough venom at any one time to kill ninety to one hundred and twenty humans.
As ocean currents and biomes change, various species of dangerous box jellyfish have shown up in places where they have not recently been abundant, including Japan, India, Israel, Florida, and the Jersey Shore. But compared to other venoms, research on jellyfish has remained in the dark ages. New methods for collecting venom—including one that relies on beer—along with a better understanding of box-jelly biochemistry may point to better non-antibiotic protections from them, and to novel defenses for humans against other fatal infections from anthrax and the antibiotic-resistant "superbug" MRSA, says Yanagihara. (Venoms are already the basis of a handful of FDA-approved drugs that have generated billions for the pharma industry.) Now the U.S. military is helping to fund Yanagihara's research, and applying a cream she developed to thwart box jellyfish, which have already left serious stings on a dozen Army divers at a training facility in Florida, and forced one diver out of the program.
As ocean currents and biomes change, various species of dangerous box jellyfish have shown up in places where they have not recently been abundant, including Japan, India, Israel, Florida, and the Jersey Shore. But compared to other venoms, research on jellyfish has remained in the dark ages. New methods for collecting venom—including one that relies on beer—along with a better understanding of box-jelly biochemistry may point to better non-antibiotic protections from them, and to novel defenses for humans against other fatal infections from anthrax and the antibiotic-resistant "superbug" MRSA, says Yanagihara. (Venoms are already the basis of a handful of FDA-approved drugs that have generated billions for the pharma industry.) Now the U.S. military is helping to fund Yanagihara's research, and applying a cream she developed to thwart box jellyfish, which have already left serious stings on a dozen Army divers at a training facility in Florida, and forced one diver out of the program.
As ocean currents and biomes change, various species of dangerous box jellyfish have shown up in places where they have not recently been abundant, including Japan, India, Israel, Florida, and the Jersey Shore.
Is it too much to hope that one of these little guys could, maybe, take care of Snooki for us? I'm just sayin'.
#DeleteChrome
For all the hoopla, sharks don't kill very many people. The fact that Box Jellyfish kill more people than sharks do is unimpressive. In the U.S., the country with the most shark attacks, one person is killed about every other year.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
The Irukanji jellyfish is an extremely fucking nasty box jellyfish which is predominately found off the north coast of Australia. Originally it was thought to be localised to that area but they now know they are far more distributed. This jelly fish is the one that has been found off the coast of Japan, India, and Florida. But the thing is they are tiny, about 1cm3 so unless you are getting instances of the syndrome they are really hard to detect.
There is nothing about changing currents or biomes that can be tied to the location of those creatures. They are just really really small so unless you are looking for them you won't see them. I mean it took researchers 12 years to find the damn things in the first place when the syndrome was originally identified and they knew where to look.
Before I read the summary, can someone tell me if this is a story about Australian death adders? Those goddamn things scare the crap out of me, so if it's about them I'm outta here.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Beer method:
Step 1 - hold my beer...
I read that slefies kills moe people than sharks every year. Is this fist more dangerous than selfies ? Or are selfies still on top as the most dangerous animal in the world ?
...divers does the Army have??? Maybe the Navy is running a covert jellyfish operation to get the Army out of the diving business.
Seriously, ANOTHER thread about Hilary Clinton?
-Styopa
One species is said to have enough venom at any one time to kill ninety to one hundred and twenty humans.
Ah, I see they discovered my ex.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere