Francie Diep for InnavationNewsDaily:

A half-inch-long juvenile jellyfish pulses and swims much like any of its compatriots in oceans all over the world. The major difference? It’s entirely man-made. “It’s a biohybrid robot. It’s part animal, it’s part synthetic material,” said Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University who led the jellyfish-building effort.

The “jellyfish” was engineered to help scientists understand how biological pumps work, to aid them ultimately in creating artificial hearts using biological material. It’s an amazing step forward, if a bit creepy. The “biohybrid robot” comprises silicone material and heart cells harvested from rats.

There’s a video embedded on the page that show you the “artificial jellyfish” in motion, and it really does look like a jellyfish.