Water Bears in Space

Last Updated (Wednesday, 24 September 2008 10:50) Written by Raymond Nakamura

I just read my daughter a fun picture book called Baby Brains, about a genius infant who becomes an astronaut, only to cry for his mommy during his first space walk.

Recently, tiny naked astronauts known as water bears went on a trip courtesy of the European Space Agency into the vacuum of space, exposed to cosmic radiation. I don't know if they called for their mommies, but I wouldn't blame them if they did.

Technically known as tardigrades, they are tinier than this period. This experiment makes them the first animals to survive a full on space walk. After the ordeal, they were still frisky enough afterward to reproduce. Now there's an idea for a reality TV show.

Usually, they live in mosses, possibly in your backyard. They live for only a few months, but can survive being dried out for years. Given that such habitats could dry out, it's a good thing they can put up with extreme changes in their living conditions. They make cockroaches look like wimps.

The leader of the research, K. Ingemar Jonsson of Kristianstad University in Sweden, thinks they maybe have the ability to repair DNA damage. Dr. Jonsson told me that the genome hasn't been sequenced yet so understanding the mechanisms could be some time in coming. But it could have implications for radiation therapy.

Others think the results support the plausibility of panspermia, the idea that life on Earth could have started from elsewhere.

Meantime, I'm going to look into licensing tardigrade plush toys. Anybody in?

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