{"id":339916,"date":"2025-06-10T16:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=339916"},"modified":"2025-06-15T18:41:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T13:11:42","slug":"tardigrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tardigrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Tardigrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Among the scientific experiments to be conducted by astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) include the one that will examine the revival, survival, and reproduction of tardigrades in space. <strong>Tardigrades.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>About Tardigrades<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_339918\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-339918\" style=\"width: 453px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-339918\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-IE.png?resize=453%2C255&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"453\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-IE.png?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-IE.png?w=643&amp;ssl=1 643w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-339918\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; IE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>They are also known as \u201c<strong>water bears<\/strong>\u201d as they are robust <strong>aquatic animals<\/strong> that have been around for roughly <strong>600 million years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Naming:<\/strong> They derive their name from the fact that they look like <strong>an eight-legged bear with a mouth<\/strong> that can <strong>project out like a tongue<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Discovery:<\/strong> They were discovered in 1773 by German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shape and size:<\/strong> They are about <strong>5 mm long<\/strong> when fully grown, have <strong>four pairs of legs<\/strong>, with 4-6 claws on each foot. They can only be <strong>seen under a microscope<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Feeding habit:<\/strong> Tardigrade feed on <strong>plant cells, algae and small invertebrates<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution and habitat:<\/strong> They can be found almost <strong>everywhere<\/strong> \u2014 from the <strong>highest mountains<\/strong> to the <strong>deepest oceans<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Their <strong>most common habitat<\/strong> is the <strong>thin film of water found on mosses and lichens<\/strong>, which bestows upon these animals the moniker of \u201c<strong>moss piglets<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Scientific significance of Tardigrades<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Resilient:<\/strong> They are among the <strong>most resilient animals<\/strong> which can <strong>survive extreme conditions<\/strong> such as exposure to outer space.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cryptobiosis<\/strong>: They owe their incredible <strong>resilience to cryptobiosis<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>It is a state in which organisms bring their <strong>metabolism to a near-complete standstill<\/strong> in the face of adverse environmental conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anhydrobiosis:<\/strong> Tardigrades can <strong>reduce their metabolism to less than 0.01% of normal<\/strong>, and <strong>drop their water levels by more than 95%,<\/strong> a state called <strong>anhydrobiosis<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tun state:<\/strong> Both <strong>anhydrobiosis and cryptobiosis<\/strong> result in the emergence of a <strong>durable shrunken state<\/strong>, called <strong>tun<\/strong>, in which tardigrades are able to <strong>withstand extreme conditions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Protein generation:<\/strong> They <strong>produce unique proteins<\/strong> such as <strong>cytoplasmic-abundant heat soluble (CAHS) proteins<\/strong> which are key to their resilience.\n<ul>\n<li>These proteins form a <strong>gel-like matrix within their cells<\/strong>, vitrifying and <strong>protecting essential cellular components from destruction<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Potential uses:<\/strong> A better <strong>understanding of tardigrades\u2019 survival mechanisms<\/strong> can potentially have several <strong>applications<\/strong>: from helping scientists develop <strong>more resilient crops<\/strong> to creating <strong>advanced sunscreens<\/strong> to preserving human tissues and organs for transplantation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Among the scientific experiments to be conducted by astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) include the one that will examine the revival, survival, and reproduction of tardigrades in space. Tardigrades. About Tardigrades They are also known as \u201cwater bears\u201d as they are robust aquatic animals that have been around for roughly 600 million&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tardigrades\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tardigrades<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":339918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-339916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-IE.png?fit=643%2C362&ssl=1","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}