The Wonderful Waterbear....

[The Cat]

Water Bears Turn Into Glass When They Dry Out

(Pictured: look at its wee little foot nubs!)

Tardigrades - known affectionately as water bears or moss piglets - have pretty much got it all. These microscopic invertebrates are capable of surviving the most extreme conditions you could dream up, including prolonged desiccation and near-100 percent water loss, freezing and boiling temperatures, intense ionising radiation, and the vacuum of outer space.

Scientists have discovered that to survive extreme desiccation, tardigardes produce a special type of 'bioglass' to hold essential proteins and molecules together until they’re rehydrated back to life. Now they’re figuring out how to use this mechanism to develop drought-resistant crops and longer-lasting vaccines.

Imagine the possibilities! In this thread!

Have fun.

[Population: 1]

These are the kind of creatures that advertise that life is most likely prolific in the universe. Sure, they’re not building craft capable of interstellar travel, but most life forms we’ll discover out there are probably what we’d term as simple. Life is life in a broader sense and I think it’s flourishing out there. These little guys are amazing and have a lot they can teach us.

[rav3n]

This concerns me since it's not out of scope that once they figure out how to create drought and freeze resistant crops, horizontal gene transfer can create extreme bacteria that can't be boiled out or deep frozen to death. Bacteria gene swap like crazy.

[The Cat]

Couldn't they in theory by that time do the same thing with us and stay paced in the marathon?

[Hexcoder]

The whole world cleaves to life like it's the most valuable thing on the planet..."survive, survive, survive"...but here I am with the belief that it's better not to be born.

[The Cat]

Life may be a roller coaster; just a bunch of twists and turns, loops and free falls, hurtling around at break neck speeds, but ultimately going nowhere. It freaks me out. But then I remember. I like roller coasters. Also; this exists:


Maybe roller coasters aren't just roller coasters but metaphors.

And that takes the edge off.

[Peter Deadpan]

Why didn't you post this in my Weird Science thread?

[The Cat]

Why didn't you post this in my Weird Science thread?

I was gonna. But there so much cute waterbear stuff, I didnt want to derail it from its original glorious purpose. There's so much glorious weird science I have in mind for that thread, and I havent even gotten to the tentacles.

[Peter Deadpan]

I was gonna. But there so much cute waterbear stuff, I didnt want to derail it from its original glorious purpose. There's so much glorious weird science I have in mind for that thread, and I havent even gotten to the tentacles.

This is acceptable.

[The Cat]

This is acceptable.

Excellent. Now dance with me Peter. Dance with me into oblivion...