Sunday, October 21, 2007

Water Bears have extreme survival abilities


Water Bears AKA Tardigrades "have been known to survive the following extreme conditions:

temperatures as low as -200 °C (-328 °F) and as high as 151 °C (304 °F);
freezing and/or thawing processes;
changes in salinity;
lack of oxygen;
lack of water;
levels of X-ray radiation 1000x the lethal human dose;
some noxious chemicals;
boiling alcohol;
low pressure of a vacuum;
high pressure (up to 6x the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean).

3 comments:

Greybishop said...

Ah, science.

The microscopic world is as grand and wonderous as the vast vistas of interstellar space. Probably more so, since the processes that govern life at such tiny levels allow for much more rapid development and observable evolution. Better still, we can observe development and evolution directly (rather than by inference which governs much of what we know of space), in relatively short timespans. A human lifetime is plenty of time to watch generations of microbes evolve into form of superbug. It takes considerably longer to observe a single life to death cycle of a star.

Ah science.

Anonymous said...

I always thought that if science/military were to genetically engineer soldiers that traits naturally found in nature would be used.
JDH

Sawsee said...

Hey GB & JDH!

Yes, science is incredible; as vast as the universe is, the atomic world is its equal.

SF allows us a glimpse into the future.