Week 14 Biochemistry - Living Diversity

Tardigrades may have survived spacecraft crashing on moon
I learned about tardigrades for the first time about 6 years ago while going down the rabbit hole on YouTube. They are quite fascinating animals with their abilities to withstand extreme temperatures and pressures, as well as their ability to be in a cryptobiotic state. They might now be on the moon, but there also exists a theory known as panspermia which theorizes that tardigrades came from another planet like Mars and traveled to Earth on debris impact from an asteroid which would account for why they can survive the vacuum of space. We don't know how they've evolved and there aren't any relative animals on Earth, but they have a digestive tract, muscles, and nervous system like us. I doubt we would be able to mimic their biochemistry in order to travel through space. After they are revived from their cryptobiotic state, they continue on as if no time has changed, enjoying the moment and the now. If this is one lesson we could learn or mimic from a tardigrade, it would be this.


Comments

  1. DmitriusAugust 12, 2019 at 2:37 AM

    Hi Kristie, Zen Tardigrades - tell me more! Definitely an awesome title for a psychedelic rock album, the cover art is instant. I think you'd appreciate this talk Kathie Fischer gave at the SF Zen Center http://sfzc.org/the-dharma-of-tardigrades

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