The whole thing is fascinating, but my favourite part is:

In 2007, Parker was searching for new ways of studying muscular pumps when he visited the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. “I saw the jellyfish display and it hit me like a thunderbolt,” he says. “I thought: I know I can build that.”

To do so, he recruited John Dabiri, a bioengineer who studies biological propulsion at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. “I grabbed him and said, ‘John, I think I can build a jellyfish.’ He didn’t know who I was, but I was pretty excited and waving my arms, and I think he was afraid to say no.”

This is a jellyfish in the same way as a Real Doll with a pithed frog and a 9v battery in it's cooter is a girl.

That said, I have been told that if I wanted to create artificial life the simplest thing to attempt would be a jellyfish. So the guy has the right idea here. But needs a lot more work.

Yeah it's in no way a cool thing. Yaaaaawn bionic jellyfish.

“You’ve got a heart drug?” says Parker. “You let me put it on my jellyfish, and I’ll tell you if it can improve the pumping.”

like I said

So you're saying "useless" means "doesn't give Spoonybard a blowjob?"

I dunno about you guys, but I sure as hell measure usefulness in capacity to give total strangers blowjobs.

ATTACK OF THE BOX JELLYDRONES