Tardigrades (Water Bears) survive in Space

[Wise Young]

http://www.scientificblogging.com/ne...d_in_space?rss

Water Bears Can Even Survive Unprotected In Space
Submitted by News Staff on 8 September 2008 - 12:30am. Zoology

Space is extremely cold, near absolute zero, and it is a vacuum, so no oxygen, plus there is the threat of lethal radiation from stars. It is considered the most hostile of environments, where unprotected humans would last for a fraction of a second.

But research by Ingemar Jönsson and colleagues in Current Biology shows that some animals — the tardigrades, or 'water-bears' — can do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation just fine.

<more>