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Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Tardigrades

Tardigrades are one of the most impressive animals ever. these organisms are their what scientists call extremophiles which mean they don't care where they live. The tardigrades secret is when conditions get too tough the basically shrivel up and die with the option of reviving if conditions get too tough.

Tardigrades can:

  • Withstand temperatures between 1 kelvin and 148 degrees Celsius   
  • They can survive being exposed to 1000 times the amount of radiation that would kill an elephant
  • They can withstand pressures of up to 6 times of which you find in the deepest oceans in earth. 
You'll be surprised to know that in 2007 scientists at NASA and ESA have sent these organisms into space and opened an air lock door and leaving them in the vacuum of space, all of them returned healthy and some of them even laid little Tardigrade eggs.

   

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