Sep 102012
Specifically, the incredibly tough little “water bears.”
[youtube 7W194GQ6fHI]
From Wikipedia:
Tardigrades have been known to withstand the following extremes while in this state:
- Temperature – tardigrades can survive being heated for a few minutes to 151 °C (424 K),[20] or being chilled for days at -200 °C (73 K),[20] or for a few minutes at -272 °C (~1 degree above absolute zero).[21]
- Pressure – they can withstand the extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1,200 times atmospheric pressure. Tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days.[21] Some species can also withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, which is nearly six times the pressure of water in the deepest ocean trench, the Mariana trench.[12]
- Dehydration – tardigrades have been shown to survive nearly 10 years in a dry state.[22] When exposed to extremely low temperatures, their body composition goes from 85% water to only 3%. As water expands upon freezing, dehydration ensures the tardigrades do not get ripped apart by the freezing ice (as waterless tissues cannot freeze).[23]
- Radiation – tardigrades can withstand median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma-rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions) in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human).[24] The only explanation thus far for this ability is that their lowered water state provides fewer reactants for the ionizing radiation.[25]
- Environmental toxins – tardigrades can undergo chemobiosis—a cryptobiotic response to high levels of environmental toxins. However, these laboratory results have yet to be verified.[26][27]
- Outer space – In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum of space. After being rehydrated back on Earth, over 68% of the subjects protected from high-energy UV radiation survived and many of these produced viable embryos, and a handful had survived full exposure to solar radiation.[21][28] In May 2011, tardigrades were sent into space along with other extremophiles on STS-134, the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour.[29][30][31] In November 2011, they were among the organisms sent by the US-based Planetary Society on the Russian Fobos-Grunt mission to Phobos.[citation needed]
The guy in the video speculates that the Tardigrade may have an extraterrestrail origin, for two reasons:
1) Because it seems the little monsters can survive in the vacuum of space
2) Because it seems the little monsters are evolutionarily unrelated to other lifeforms on Earth.
However, Tardigrade RNA has been sequenced, and they seem to be related to arthropods. with more detailed DNA analysis to come.