Xylord Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 I think I've found my new totem animal. Tartigrades. Who are they? In one sentence, they're the best guys in the living realm. In a bit more than that, they're the awesomest extremophiles of our Earth. But first, some pictures so you can imagine them a bit better. By now, you've probably noticed they're adorable and absolutely cute. But don't under-estimate those guys, they're no pandas. Indeed, they might not look like it, but on top of being so beautiful and cuddly, they're also the most HARDCORE living beings we know of. A few degrees above 0 K? No big deal. 600 K? What about it, it's still colder than their absolute epicness. 6000 atmospheres of pressure? Pfft, not even feeling it. 10000000 rads worth of radiation, or thousands of the human fatal dose? Not even started tanning! Space VACUUM? Lol, that's supposed to hurt? Oh, and have I mentioned that they live hundreds of years? No? Well, they do. This thread is for all the members of the Tartigrade International fanclub.
warpspeed10 Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 Expose them to the vacuum of space for a few months. Bring them back inside, give them some moss to walk around on and water to drink and they're all like "Sup guys, how's the weather?"
okamikk Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 They are probably the most HARDCORE!!!! Creature of all time
M-C Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 The layer of cuticle around it looks like a bag... Btw I want to join the club, do we get t-shirts?
Hushful Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 I had seen a YouTube video on these guys a few months back. They are amazing little creatures. Just the fact that they can live in space is cool as hell.
warpspeed10 Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 Let mission Shoot Tartigrades at Other Planets to Seed Life On Them, TOPSLOT for short, commence!
Xylord Posted October 20, 2012 Author Posted October 20, 2012 Let mission Shoot Tartigrades at Other Planets to Seed Life On Them, TOPSLOT for short, commence! I like the image of tartigrades going around solar systems on their asteroids, seeding life everywhere they crash...
okamikk Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 yes, then the super-tardigrades that evolve on these planets shall be our new-found slaves! free labour for everybody! (except the super-tardigrades, but who cares) /sarcasm
Sacrieur Posted October 22, 2012 Posted October 22, 2012 Pff you think those guys are tough? Meet Deinococcus radiodurans These guys are so tough that they make tartigrades look like pathetic crybabies. Yeah 4000 Gy of radiation kills you? That's real cute. These guys can survive 5000 Gy without breaking a sweat. Give them 15000 Gy of radiation and over a third of these tough bastards will still make it. That's right, at almost four times the amount of radiation that stops a tartigrade dead, good ol' radioduran is alive and kicking. But we're not done yet, this guy has a distant cousin named Paracoccus denitrificans Goku trained at 100x gravity. These buggers scoff at that. They didn't just survive at 1000x gravity, or even 9000x gravity, but a whopping 403,627x gravity and they thrived. That's right, no shutting down mechanism or hibernation. They just keep doing what they're doing without a care in the world. Tartigrades aren't too tough now are they.
Xylord Posted October 22, 2012 Author Posted October 22, 2012 Pff you think those guys are tough? Meet Deinococcus radiodurans These guys are so tough that they make tartigrades look like pathetic crybabies. Yeah 4000 Gy of radiation kills you? That's real cute. These guys can survive 5000 Gy without breaking a sweat. Give them 15000 Gy of radiation and over a third of these tough bastards will still make it. That's right, at almost four times the amount of radiation that stops a tartigrade dead, good ol' radioduran is alive and kicking. But we're not done yet, this guy has a distant cousin named Paracoccus denitrificans Goku trained at 100x gravity. These buggers scoff at that. They didn't just survive at 1000x gravity, or even 9000x gravity, but a whopping 403,627x gravity and they thrived. That's right, no shutting down mechanism or hibernation. They just keep doing what they're doing without a care in the world. Tartigrades aren't too tough now are they. I have to admit it, those guys are pretty intense, in particular our friend "Conan the Bacteria", but I would say uni (Or tetra)-cellular creatures are unfair competition for us, poor and unstable multicellular creatures. I honestly wouldn't want to cuddle with Paracoccus.
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