Forget Cockroaches as the most resilient lifeforms on this planet

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Found this video about a tiny creature named Tardigrades (aka Water Bears) that can survive extreme temperatures and outer space vacuum conditions, go into extreme suspended animation to preserve themselves and so on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W194GQ6fHI&NR=1&feature=endscreen

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I remember reading about these when I was a kid. Fascinating little buggers. It's overly anthropocentric to claim humans are the "dominant" species on this planet, when we've got creatures like this living everywhere, who are a lot hardier than we are. I remember being amazed at how they could survive so long without water, and such extreme temperatures.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I know some of the people who worked for this experiment. They launched a few tardigrades in space and tested their resistance to such extreme conditions. It was pretty neat.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Tardigrades! I'm familiar with them; it's nice to see them getting some love.

Actually, that whole sentence works out wrong.

What I mean is, tardigrades are fascinating lifeforms that I'm always glad to see getting the attention they deserve.

 

[ebusinesstutor]

Apollo 12 brought back the Surveyor 3 camera (robotic probe). Inside, scientists found bacteria that had survived 3 YEARS in the airless vacuum on the Moon.

Gives credence to the fact that life could spread in meteorites.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm fairly sure we've known about resilient bacteria and microbiological life that can live in the harshness of space for quite some time now.