Friday, December 4, 2009

Animal Farm Friday - Tardigrades

No, this has nothing to do with measuring the academic proficiency of those mentally challenged (though for some reason, Tea Baggers come to mind). Tardigrades - also known as "Water Bears" - are microscopic polyextremophiles, and they can survive incredible extremes, like a decade without water, near absolute zero as well as 300 degree temperatures, and even 10 days in the vacuum of space. They're one of the few - if not only - microorganisms that look kind of cute.

Pretty hearty little beasts. The next closing thing to a survival rate like that seems to be the political careers of Republicans swimming in ethics violations (since no one really seems to care).


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2851666759_92b75c4430.jpg

tardigrades (water bears) from Goldstein Lab on Vimeo.





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