Just Amazing
Go over to MSNBC and read ‘Water bear’ survives naked in space
A tiny, six-legged critter that can suspend all biological activity in extreme environments survived a journey to space that would have instantly killed any human and most other life forms.
In the first test of its kind, researchers exposed the hardy segmented creatures, called “water bears,” to the open and harsh vacuum of space, with all its deadly radiation, on a spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. Many of them survived.
The definition of the environment necessary for life keeps changing.
10 comments
pretty cool.
although it’s a little scary to think of what alterations that might have made on their dna and what kind of critters we might have made them into. also scary in that it implies maybe not all bacteria in our food are going to be susceptible irradiation.
And we may definitely be hauling stuff back from space exploration that they make movies about.
I was impressed by the Canadian frogs that live through the Winter frozen, and then bounce back to life in the Spring, and the algae that have replaced arsenic with oxygen for photosynthesis.
It looks like there will need to be some rethinking about what is required to support life.
While “water bears” won’t prosper in that environment it is an interesting point and does permit you to expand some of the previous limitations we have put on the definition of what is necessary to support life.
The fascinating part is that these aren’t single-celled, but further up the scale of life forms. If they can survive, then it is obvious that simpler forms should also be able to survive the passage through space without an artificial environment.
I think the plants in my yard have been talking to each other.
I know that lantana is an underground terrorist cell.
the dog is doing his best to eradicate it for you. he loves munching on the stuff.
i’ve read that lantana is on the list of plants that should be kept out of the reach of pets, but he’d been nibbling for 5+ years on some poor, wretchedly puny but resolute, unidentified and unidentifiable weed that kept trying to grow at our former residence without any noticeable ill effects. i only found out what it was when i went to back visit a year or so later and it had actually grown into a recognizable shrub.
he’s 12 or 13 now, and the vet always pronounces him to be in fabulously good health at checkup time, so i let him nibble when we’re out on our walks. probably i wouldn’t be so cavalier if he were an outside dog i had bunches of the stuff growing the yard, but a half-dozen leaves once or twice a week doesn’t seem to have hurt him.
I have a mild reaction to the plant when I’m ripping it out by its roots, but have never understood why anyone would spend money to buy it and then plant it on purpose.
i personally dislike its looks, as well as the fact that it’s an invasive non-native, which is the other reason i let the dog munch on the plants when he finds them. i don’t know if it tastes good, or has psychoactive properties, or what, but he actively seeks it out over other plants.
It has been my experience with dogs that they eat plants for a specific reason. My Mother’s poodle ate a certain type of grass as an emetic, but a different type after drinking water that apparently acted to calm his stomach. Of course, as a miniature poodle he was quite psychotic, but his best buddy, a Doberman, independently made the same choices with the same results. It is probably the odor that tells them what they are dealing with.
The woody suckers are hard to get rid off, and I have used a chain and pick-up to clean-out major infestations, and followed up with a roto-tiller to be sure they were gone.
The leaves are fine, but the stems and flowers are ugly, IMHO, and they spread out to the detriment of other plants.