Posted on 09/09/2008 7:12:32 PM PDT by Clint Williams
Adam Korbitz writes
"New Scientist and Science Daily are reporting the results of an intriguing experiment in which scientists launched tardigrades or 'water bears' — tiny invertebrates about one millimeter long — into space onboard the European Space Agency's FOTON-M3 spacecraft. After 10 days in the vacuum of space, the satellite returned to Earth and the tardigrades were recovered. The tardigrades survived the vacuum just fine, but exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet radiation proved deadly for most of the water bears. However, some did survive. The tardigrades are the first animals to have survived such an experiment, a feat previously achieved only by lichens and bacteria."
Where is PETA?
Shouldn’t they be called ‘water bares’?
Who cares, they don’t sound like anything fit to eat or wear!
Fur coats for water bears!
Animal Planet’s “The Most Extreme” profiled water bears a year or two ago. These things are almost Kryptonian — practically indestructible.
Are these the little Sea Monkeys from the old comic books?
Water Bears, they used to show films on the projector back in tha day.They can be dried and left in storage for years, then a drop of water and (Blammo!) Game on!
I have some Antarctic moss samples that have been in the freezer (-22C) for 8 yrs. When I recently thawed some out and added a drop of water, a tardigrade, one of the animals that live in mosses, started swimming around. Amazing.
I think those were brine shrimp.
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