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Why is the NSF Funding Jellyfish?

Mathilda Harris

Having grown up near the Mediterranean where the sea is part of the rhythm of our daily lives, I can recall what I thought was one of the most beautiful creatures to gracefully adorn the waters – the jellyfish. I saw groups swimming with ease, ejecting jets of water that propelled them forward, seeming to change like the colors of my kaleidoscope. And yes, one day I met up with several of these dangerous nomads and they completely changed my mind about their beauty and passivity as they harpooned me without pity. I was delighted when they did not return to the coastal waters for several years. It was not until I recently visited Australia to lecture at the University of New South Wales that I met up with them again as the jellyfish known as sea tomatoes. This time they were laying their eggs. During this encounter, I wondered about their survival and the implications for environmental impacts. I discovered that there were several teams of international researchers studying that very same question, some of whom were funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

What is Being Studied?

The Division of Ocean Sciences at the NSF funded thirty researchers affiliated with the Global Jelly Fish Group. These scientists conducted their research at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The results of the study were recently published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the findings highlight the extreme necessity of gathering long-term data to comprehend the importance of the impact that jellyfish have on the environment.

What are the Implications?

There are several hundred recent research works on the study of jellyfish because their real beauty is their crucial contribution to the functioning of marine ecosystems. Researchers such as Robert Condon are finding that jellyfish may help us see the complex relationships among species in the oceanic food web. “The question has been: Are jellies playing their natural part or hogging the stage?” asks Condon. “Based on recent results, they’re doing what jellyfish evolved to do, right on cue.” Furthermore, new research demonstrates that scientists have underestimated the jellyfish. Beneath their seemingly simple exterior lies a remarkably sophisticated collection of genes, including many that give rise to humans’ complex anatomy.

What can the jellyfish tell us about the direction and emphasis of NSF funding? As evidenced in the complexity and diversity of the examples cited, the focus of the NSF is interdisciplinary, transformative, and collaborative research, which leads to paradigm shifts.

Interdisciplinary Research

Studying jellyfish involves interdisciplinary teams effectively working together to better understand the diversity of ecological and environmental systems. Numerous funded programs on the subject have shed an understanding on the complexity of this species to the ecosystem. These are the types of research to which the NSF gives high priority: promoting interdisciplinary research and supports it through a number of specific solicitations that are in novel or emerging areas extending beyond any particular current NSF program. The Dimensions of Biodiversity program exemplifies this funding trend, which aims to bring together innovative and interdisciplinary teams. This program is one that seeks to “accomplish in 10 years what, with a piecemeal approach, would have taken 50 years – a half century we can no longer afford to wait” (NSF, Dimensions of Biodiversity).

Transformative Research

Although the NSF encourages transformative research, it is not always easy to assess the initial results. Investigators willing to work at the frontier of science are supported for their potential to challenge current paradigms. It was “the serendipitous discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) by a marine biologist interested in bioluminescence in jelly fish that resulted in an amazingly useful biological tag that allows scientists to track cellular processes.” (NSF, Challenges of Identifying Potentially Transformative Research). This example of research in one discipline having profound influences in others led to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Collaborative Research

Improvements and innovations across the spectrum of scientific processes and activities will have a profound impact on the rate of scientific discoveries. However, this would require the collaboration of various teams, including marine biologists, chemists, geneticists, and information scientists involved in human-computer interaction. The latter will allow for better interfaces for collaboration that would significantly improve the processing of collections and results. Much has already been accomplished in the study of marine biology and other fields, but the collaboration that may not have been considered is the key to improving the innovative scientific process.

Broader Impacts on Education and of Jellyfish

The widespread potential for unlocking imaginations of K-12 students is especially critical in the classroom, where the opportunity to study a simple and yet complex creature can begin to lead to the understanding of the world of science. The NSF encourages, funds, and asks scientists to reach out to educators and students for this reason, and many grants require a component – in the form of Broader Impacts – to better define how the public may benefit from the research being conducted. The study of the ecosystem, ocean, and biology can easily begin with a young student’s chance to study a jellyfish, both in its beauty and its fury.

Mathilda Harris

Director at Grant Training Center
Over the past 18 years, she has written grants, conducted capital campaigns, developed strategic plans for grant procurement, and assisted individuals and institutions to write winning proposals for various donors.

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