Tardigrade
Microscopic eight-legged animals of size 0.5 mm also known as water bears or moss piglets have been found everywhere in Earth's biosphere, from 5546m (18,196ft) up a mountain in the Himalayas, in Japanese hot springs, at the bottom of the ocean, in Antarctica or even on our body.
They can withstand huge amounts of radiation, extreme pressures (both high and low), air deprivation, dehydration, starvation, being heated to 150 °C, or being frozen almost to absolute zero (-273.1°C).
Tardigrades are prevalent in mosses and lichens and feed on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates. When collected, they may be viewed under a low-power microscope, making them accessible to students and amateur scientists.
If we go into outer space without protection, we'll die. The lack of pressure would force the air in our lungs to rush out. Gases dissolved in our body fluids would expand, pushing the skin apart and forcing it to inflate like a balloon. Our eardrums and capillaries would rupture, and our blood would start to bubble and boil. Even if we survived all that, ionizing radiation would rip apart the DNA in your cells. Mercifully, we would be unconscious in 15 seconds. But this is not the case for tardigrades.
In 2007, thousands of tardigrades were attached to a satellite and blasted into space. After the satellite had returned to Earth, scientists examined them and found that many of them had survived. Some of the females had even laid eggs in space, and the newly-hatched young were healthy.
Tardigrades can go up to 30 years without food or water. They have also been tested for life sustainability at pressures even six times that of the ocean’s deepest trenches.
Their resiliency is in part due to a unique protein in their bodies called Dsup—short for "damage suppressor"—that protects their DNA from being harmed by things like ionizing radiation, which is present in the soil, water, and vegetation. Another amazing survival trick is cryptobiosis, a state of inactivity triggered by a dry environment. The micro-animals squeeze all the water out of their bodies, retract their heads and limbs, roll up into a little ball, and become dormant. When conditions improve, they unfurl themselves and go about their business.
Comments
Post a Comment