Sea cucumber tissue lives on for years without decaying

ENVIRONMENT – BIODIVERSITY

• Tissues from the sea cucumber can survive and grow independently for years.
• When scientists removed specific body parts and placed them in natural seawater, they thrived for more than three years without supplements.
• They also used immune cells to beat infections and absorbed nutrients from the water.
• This unique form of natural immortality challenges conventional views on biological decay and offers an ethical model for researchers to study healing.