World's first 'peanut butter and jellyfish' created, thanks to science

Science is responsible for some truly bizarre creations, but perhaps nothing quite as wacked-out as the “the first known unholy amalgamation of America’s favorite lunchtime treat and live cnidarians”.

Yes, science has finally created the “peanut butter and jellyfish.”

 

 

 

Over at the Dallas Zoo and Children’s Aquarium, scientists P. Zelda Montoya and Barrett L. Christie were trying to find a cheaper food source alternative for their captive gelatinous invertebrates, or jellyfish. So in the experiment that followed, they gathered over 250 baby moon jellies, and then added small drops of a special liquid mixture to the creatures’ aquarium twice daily for five weeks.

 

That mixture contained three tablespoons of creamy, protein-rich peanut butter (the kind that is free of additives such as corn syrup and other preservatives) and around 10 ounces of seawater.

 

What happened next was totally unexpected: the jellyfish gobbled up the peanut buttery goodness.

 

The results were even more surprising. For one, the moon jellies changed in color.

 

“Throughout this period it was noted that jellies that had recently fed displayed a distinct brownish hue owing to their high degree of peanutbutterocity,” stated the scientific report as it appears in the January edition of “Drum and Croaker, A Highly Irregular Journal for the Public Aquarist”.

 

The moon jellies also increased in size.

 

“Mean size had increased to 4.17±1.06mm (n=19) after 8 days of peanutbutterification,” wrote the authors. In other words, the creatures experienced a slight growth in size, thanks to the rich fat content of the peanut butter.

 

Due to their growth and new coloration the creatures eventually began to resemble tiny peanut butter jelly cups.

 

And thus the peanut butter and jellyfish was born.

 

 

“We would love to claim we conducted this trial with noble purpose,” Montoya and Christie said, “but the truth is that we just wanted to make peanut butter and jellyfish simply to see if it could be done.”

 

“Whether or not it should be done is a question no doubt to be debated by philosophers for the ages (or at least by some aquarists over beers),” they added.

 

Despite their apparent levity, the scientists did have something more serious in mind.
 

“(T)his whimsical exercise is not that far from serious aquacultural research. In recent years peanut meal has been evaluated as a potential additive to finfish diets (e.g. Allan et. al., 2000; Zhou et. al., 2004), and has been shown to be an effective surrogate for fish protein (12% dietary peanut meal in lieu of up to 20% animal protein) in the culture of decapods shrimps (Lim, 1997),” they stated in their report.

 

“The success of our trial group of Aurelia on this experimental diet was surprising, and we hope this ridiculous experiment illustrates that unconventional approaches in husbandry are at the very least, worth trying once,” said the authors.

 

They then concluded their report with: “Moon jellies have seen a storied past. They have delighted children at aquaria worldwide, captivated researchers with their elegant simplicity and functionality, and even traveled into space (Spangenberg, 1994); but we feel that becoming one with peanut butter helps them fulfill their ultimate destiny as a species – to become peanut butter and jellyfish!”

 

It’s beginning to look like peanut-based protein foods hold potential as a good alternative source of food to the less sustainable diet of fish and shrimp. More studies, however, are required to see just to what extent it can be used.

 

 

 

 — TJD, GMA News