Meet the hideous creature that will live to the end of the world

f00l posted a pic said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 7:21pm ET

Well, why not? We should be neighborly, yes?

(Google amp link)
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/478809001/

From USA Today

(Not the full article)

Unlike us, tardigrades — the world’s most indestructible species — will survive until the sun dies, according to a new Oxford University study released Friday.
Researchers found the tiny, eight-legged creatures, also known as water bears, will survive extinction from all astronomical catastrophes, including supernovas, gamma-ray bursts and large asteroid impacts.
The weird, water-dwelling critters should be around for at least the next 10 billion years — far longer than the human race.
“Without our technology protecting us, humans are a very sensitive species,” said study co-author Rafael Alves Batista, a physicist at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. “Subtle changes in our environment impact us dramatically.”

12 comments, 18 replies
Comment

Smitty2525 said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 8:24pm ET:

Whoa, where’d you get the pix of Kellyanne Conway?`

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Smitty2525 said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 9:52pm ET:

Makes a good story, but these things are the size of a dust mite .55mm or .020 inches. A sheet of paper is usually about .015 in thick.

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- @cranky1950
  
  Hey, count them! Billions and billions.
  
  Just like stars.
  
  f00l said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 4:59pm ET
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- @f00l no more like maggots billions and billions of maggots.
  
  Smitty2525 said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 10:43pm ET
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- @cranky1950
  I knew you’d find something about them that’s lovable.
  
  f00l said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 10:51pm ET
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moondrake said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 10:47pm ET:

Jabba the Hut crossed with a SharPei.

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- @moondrake
  That’s good.
  
  f00l said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 8:35pm ET
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thismyusername said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 11:22pm ET:

I prefer the term “moss piglet” to “water bear” for them.

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- @thismyusername
  
  Whatever that thing is, it would make a cute avatar.
  
  f00l said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 1:47am ET
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- @f00l
  
  it’s a knitted moss piglet of course.
  
  thismyusername said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 4:30am ET
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- @thismyusername
  A Pooh piglet?
  
  Oh gosh! Who knitted it? I am bouncing like Roo wanting to know.
  
  f00l said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 5:08am ET
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- @f00l google reverse search leads to this:
  
  https://craftycraziness.wordpress.com/category/my-shop/tardigrade/
  
  I just picked the image for the post because it makes them seem much less horrible, anything in knit form seems just a bit less horrible.
  
  thismyusername said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 8:05am ET
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bish said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 11:26pm ET:

they’re such badass animals!!! and I think they’re kinda cute

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Kidsandliz said Fri, Jul 14th 2017 at 11:56pm ET:

Roaches will probably last too. The ones in my apartment that I inherited are still here after over a year of trying to eradicate them.

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medz said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 12:06am ET:

The Octonauts taught me all about these.

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- @medz So did Cosmos.
  
  lordbowen said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 12:32am ET
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boredashell said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 6:29pm ET:

I’m a whole hearted believer these little guys hold the key to human immortality. I once went on a trip fueled by some fungus and a tree spoke to me and told me I had to be more like it if I wanted to live forever, I asked how I’m suppose to do that and it tells me to ask the water bear. So I did some digging after my head cleared and found that out that these little guys have plant DNA mixed into its own along with a whole bunch of other junk DNA it finds when it’s dormant… long story short the tree was onto something and I shouldn’t be sharing this

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- @boredashell
  I guess it’s time for someone to take this secret and sell it on the internet, or write a book about how to be young and beautiful and rich forever.
  
  And the person who does that might be rich that way, at least.
  
  f00l said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 8:36pm ET
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- @f00l But they first need to create an internet site because if it is on an internet site it then has to be true. Right?
  
  Kidsandliz said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 1:55pm ET
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f00l said Sat, Jul 15th 2017 at 9:35pm ET:

more at the Smithsonian Magazine:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-kill-tardigrade-180964069/

How to Kill Nature’s Most Indestructible Creature
Only the boiling away of Earth’s oceans could bring about the extinction of these tiny water bears

…

“Tardigrades are as close to indestructible as it gets on Earth,” astrophysicist Rafael Alves Batista tells Casey Smith of National Geographic. The phylum has existed for at least 520 million years, through multiple mass extinctions. Their hardiness means they can endure deadly radiation, temperatures ranging from 212 degrees Fahrenheit to 459 degrees below zero, deep pressures below the ocean, being dried out for a decade, and even the vacuum of space.

…

In their study published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers conclude that the only way the tardigrades could be wiped out is if Earth’s oceans are boiled away. They looked at three potential space-related disasters that could accomplish this devastating end: an impact from a massive asteroid, a supernova from a large star, or gamma radiation hitting Earth.

Here’s the actual scientific paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05796-x

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!

Guess these little water bears are.

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- @f00l “being dried out for a decade, and even the vacuum of space”. But in the vacuum of space they’ll be dried out, so presumably “even the vacuum of space, for some amount of time equal to or less than a decade”.
  Which means you don’t have to boil away the oceans, you just have to filter out all the tardigrades and ship them to space, where they’d most likely remain for a decade, space being quite empty. Maybe boiling the oceans is easier, but it’s not the only way.
  
  ravenblack said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 1:43am ET
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- @ravenblack
  Your place is clearly in Silicon Valley. May I recommend you to Kleiner Perkins?
  
  f00l said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 1:46am ET
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- @f00l They still would not truly die or be destroyed, they seem to spore when dried out and regenerate when there is moisture again even decades later. So theoretically a passing comet could scoop some up and pass them to a moist body. Might be able to starve them.
  
  Smitty2525 said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 8:55am ET
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Pavlov said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 2:36am ET:

I wonder how it feels to be one of these little guys and be made of indestructible win.

Oh, and IIRC, they’re like 17% alien DNA.

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- @Pavlov
  Oh, I think you and I beat them out on the Alien DNA.
  
  f00l said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 3:20am ET
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- @Pavlov Be kinda funny if science is wrong and life came from a comet crashing with these things.
  
  Smitty2525 said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 8:59am ET
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- @cranky1950
  I think it happened just like this:
  
  But the tardigrades set the whole thing up.
  
  f00l said Sun, Jul 16th 2017 at 1:04pm ET
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thismyusername said Sun, Jul 30th 2017 at 4:04pm ET:

Another study on moss piglets…

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40752669

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Seeds said Sun, Jul 30th 2017 at 4:22pm ET:

I seem to remember a story about them being able to survive in a vacuum as well…

yup: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14690-water-bears-are-first-animal-to-survive-space-vacuum/

That said, I can’t find it now, but I seem to remember hearing about certain fungi that could encapsulate their spores in a covering that made them basically indestructible until the right conditions came up again, so maybe those will make the forest for the water bear to live in.

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- @Pantheist I found what I was thinking of- bacteria not fungi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endospore
  
  Seeds said Sun, Jul 30th 2017 at 5:15pm ET
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