By Carl Engelking, Source: Discover Magazine

Move over Brawny, there’s a new product in the works with the strength to get the job done, and it comes from the sea. Cine’al Ltd., an Israeli nanotechnology start-up, is developing a line of super-absorbing products made from jellyfish.

Jellyfish populations worldwide have been exploding in recent years, and the creatures are expected to be one of the few winners of the warming oceans brought about by climate change. They present a real problem: In 2013, a cluster of jellyfish temporarily shut down a nuclear reactor in Sweden after they were sucked into a cooling pipe. However, until now, very few useful purposes have been found for jellyfish.

Enter a second conundrum: Absorbent products such as diapers, medical sponges and feminine pads contain synthetic super-absorbing polymers that take hundreds of years to break down in landfills. These same products made with jellyfish biodegrade in less than 30 days, and they soak up twice the mess, the Times of Israel reports.

Read the rest at: Discover Magazine