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A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 21 March 2019

Science Says: Tiny ‘water bears’ can teach us about survival

BY SETH BORENSTEIN when tardigrades need to studying whether tardi-
AP Science Writer go into cryptobiosis. grade proteins could help
WASHINGTON (AP) — Boothby engineered those them come up with a bet-
Earth’s ultimate survivors genes into yeast and says ter sunscreen to protect
can weather extreme heat, their tolerance to drought against ultraviolet rays that
cold, radiation and even increased 100-fold. He cause skin cancer. A 2016
the vacuum of space. hopes the genes could also study showed that human
Now the U.S. military hopes help crops better survive cells augmented with a
these tiny critters called drought. DNA protein unique to tar-
tardigrades can teach us In December, the Defense digrades reduced radia-
about true toughness. Department’s long-term re- tion damage in preliminary
These animals are pip- search arm gave Boothby lab tests.
squeaks, only about the a nearly $5 million grant Tardigrades are so other-
size of a period. Under to figure out what in tardi- worldly that some theorize
a microscope they look grade genes might help that they could easily exist
like some combination of human health. on planets outside the solar
chubby bear and single- The idea is to see if the tricks system. Harvard astrono-
eyed alien. And they are that tardigrades use to pro- mer Avi Loeb said “they
the closest life gets to inde- tect themselves when they could survive an impact by
structible. dry cane be used to pro- a rock and they could po-
No water? No worries. Tar- This undated electron microscope image provided by William tect vaccines and human tentially be brought from
digrades survive. Antarctic Miller of Baker University in March 2019 shows a tardigrade of blood, Boothby said. another planet” to Earth.
cold, 300-degree heat (150 the class Heterotardigrada, also known as a “water bear.” Boothby hopes to make Loeb and colleagues de-
degrees Celsius), a lack of Associated Press bags of blood last lon- cided to see if life on Earth
oxygen, even punishing ra- grade astronauts are still them to curl up in a hyper- ger than the current six could survive some of the
diation doesn’t stop these alive, Miller said. survival mode called “cryp- weeks and allow them to worst cosmic calamities.
animals. They are so resil- There are as many as 1,200 tobiosis.” be stored in a dried state So they looked look at the
ient in the face of so many species of tardigrades, and Not all the critters come so soldiers can take their hearty tardigrades, con-
dangers that scientists think they live all over Earth, from back from suspended own blood supply to battle cluding that the water
their unique biology may mountain tops to ocean animation, Miller said. But or ambulances can carry bears could survive most
hold clues to how we can depths to driveways. Not overall, they survive, even more. Tardigrade tricks end-of-the-world scenarios,
make crops more resistant all have the ability to go living through Earth’s five could possibly also help like a giant asteroid crash,
to drought, better preserve dormant and come back mass extinctions. with preserving vaccines to cosmic ray burst or nearby
blood and medicines, and to life. Duke University biologist help reduce the enormous supernova — everything
even make more effective Speaking from McMur- Thomas Boothby wanted cost and complexity of try- short of our sun blinking out.
sunscreen. do Station in Antarctica, to know how they manage ing to keep vaccines cold. “It’s good to know that at
When the going gets tough Brigham Young University to survive in “environments They could also potentially least one creature on Earth
for tardigrades, they curl biologist Byron Adams said we think of as being impos- help preserve organs or has a chance of surviv-
up, dry out and wait. Then, he can walk a few hundred sible to live in.” So he isolat- damaged tissue. ing no matter what,” Loeb
when the environment gets yards outside and find tar- ed the genes that activate Japanese scientists are said.q
better and they get water, digrades. He called them
Scientists say they can stay tica, near the top of the Ocean mission’s emergency ascent
the tigers of inland Antarc-
they spring back to life.
dormant for decades be- limited food chain, eating
fore reanimating. algae and aquatic plants. caused by motor burning out
In 2007, scientists put two Miller said tardigrades
species of tardigrades in seem to be the first animals By DAVID KEYTON and JER-
containers, launched them on Earth to have evolved RY HARMER
into orbit and opened them legs, and, sure enough, Associated Press
up to cold, airless space full they look like a first draft: ALDABRA, Seychelles (AP)
of punishing radiation from The rear two legs face — A drama in which a sub-
the sun and stars. backward while the front mersible made an emer-
“If you were put into that six face forward. gency ascent from 250
same thing, you would ex- If they are hurt when they meters (820 feet) below the
plode,” said tardigrade are in an active phase Indian Ocean was caused
expert Randy Miller, a bi- and can’t go into survival by condensation burning
ologist at Baker University mode, they die like other out a small motor in the
in Kansas. They lived and creatures. But they don’t cockpit, the director of the
later multiplied, and the have a circulatory system British-led Nekton Mission
offspring from those tardi- or a skeleton, so that allows said on Wednesday. A submersible after British scientist and her American pilot had
Oliver Steeds told The As- to make an emergency ascent from 250 meters beneath the
sociated Press that the surface of the Indian ocean off the Seychelles after smoke filled
burnout produced an ac- their two-person submersible, Tuesday March 19, 2019.
rid smell of smoke which Associated Press
triggered the pilot’s emer- With Carmichael and long scientific exploration
gency response. Steeds on board, it dived of the Indian Ocean to
The American pilot, Robert to 80 meters for roughly two document changes taking
Carmichael, and the pas- hours and returned to the place beneath the waves
senger, British scientist Molly surface without incident. that could affect billions of
Rivers, donned breathing The submersible is a key people in the surrounding
apparatus as the vessel part of the Nekton Mission, region over the coming de-
neared the surface. an unprecedented, years- cades. q