The Only Animal that can Survive in Space

Did you know there is a creature that can endure conditions and survive that no human could? On this episode we bring you the water bear.

Tardigrades or more colloquially known as water bear or moss piglets are tiny water dwelling eight legged segmented micro animals. Discovered first by German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, these tiny creatures are found anywhere from the mountain tops to the deep sea. Being one of the most resilient creatures on the planet water bears have been found in the tropics, in volcanoes and in the Antarctic. They date back to over 500 million year ago as shown from ancient fossils. Not visible to the human eye, this microscopic creatures measure half a mm long or about half the thickness of your fingernail. These little creatures are made up of a head, 3 body segments and 8 legs.

They can survive being, boiled, swished, frozen and even put into the vacuum of space. Deadly temperatures to humans have no effect on this creature, they can endure frigid cold of -479 F or -272.8 C and take heat higher than 300 f or 148 C. In extreme cold conditions, the formation of ice within the cells of the water bears isn’t a problem as they have ice nucleating agents that promote the formation of ice crystals out vs inside their cells. This is just another survival ability they posses that isn’t common in nature.

Desiccation a state of extreme dryness is not a problem for these little creatures either, putting them in a class of their own. Water bears have a unique ability of curling up into a shell known as tun which is their dry protective state that lowers their metabolic levels down to 0.01% of their normal functioning levels. In this state they can survive for decades. They can survive without food or water for more than 30 years. This is made possible by their unique anti-dehydration proteins, called intrinsically disordered proteins or TDPs, that are jelly like when in contact with water. During desiccation their TDPs will convert from a jelly like material to a hard glass like substance that protects everything that is sensitive to dehydration. Lab dried water bears were revived from a desiccated state after 8 years.

The water bear’s tun state not only protects them from dehydration but can endure 600 megapascals of force which is the same as 87,000 pound per square inch. To put this into perspective many handguns and rifles can only dish out half the pressure these little creatures can take!

Natural ability to thwart off radiation, Dsup another protein present in the water bears protects them against harmful x-rays. Scientists were able to transfer those protective properties to human cells reducing x-ray damage by 40% which could lead to some exciting scientific breakthroughs.

In 2007 the water bear was taken into low earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission. Groups of tardigrades were exposed to radiation and the hard vacuum of space in their “tun” protective state. 30 minutes after being dehydrated it was if nothing happened at all.

Source:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S0960982208008051
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12808
http://www.bbc.com/.../20150313-the-toughest-animals-on...
https://sun.iwu.edu/~tardisdp/tardigrade_facts.html
https://www.newscientist.com/.../2124893-tardigrades.../
https://www.nature.com/.../tardigrade-protein-helps-human...
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Video Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dZQdLn_FgM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idMWUiq0SE8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEX0OteYk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li_pvHCcJtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c25r5sMHVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kckg-050VCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=357vibB8R7o

Music: A Himitsu - Where Silence Is Nonexistent
https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu/where-silence-is-nonexistent

Check out some of our other videos:

Top 10 Fruits You’ve Never Heard Of Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRdgPyZF45g&feature=youtu.be
Top 10 Fruits You’ve Never Heard Of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKTej1u-7-0&feature=youtu.be

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
Rallying the Defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPk4RD19Nw

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