I went to see Gary Panter, Keith Mayerson, and Peter Saul talk last night at MoCCA. Gary was actually my teacher for a couple of years at college, and I still talk to him through email every now and then. Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen him in person in about a year. He was a great teacher, and taught me a lot.
I might add pictures to this post later sometime. Too tired now.
That is all.
The Waterbear. (AKA Tardigrade, AKA Lil’ Bad Ass)
From Wikipedia:
The name water bear comes from the way they walk, reminiscent of a bear’s gait. The biggest adults may reach a body length of 1.5 mm, the smallest below 0.1 mm. Freshly hatched larvae may be smaller than 0.05 mm.
Tardigrades are polyextremophiles and are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C (-460 °F), close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, and almost a decade without water.
In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally, making these the only animals known to be able to survive the vacuum of space.
Jellyfish may be immortal, but nothing stops the Waterbear.
