Plants & Animals Articles

Carnivore

A carnivore is an ani mal that eats a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from live animals or dead ones (scavenging). Some animals are considered carnivores even if their diets contain very little ... > full story

'Water Bears' Able To Survive Exposure To Vacuum Of Space

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2008) — Of all environments, space must be the most hostile: It is freezing cold, close to absolute zero, there is a vacuum, so no oxygen, and the amount of lethal radiation from stars is very high. This is why humans need to be carefully protected when they enter this environment.

New research by Ingemar Jönsson and colleagues published in the September 9 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, shows that some animals —the so-called tardigrades or 'water-bears'— are able to do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation.

This is the first time that any animal has been tested for survival under open-space conditions। The test subjects were chosen with great care: Tardigrades —also known as water-bears— are tiny invertebrate animals from 0.1 to 1.5mm in size that can be easily found on wet lichens and mosses. Because their homes often fall dry, tardigrades are very resistant to drying out and can resurrect after years of dryness. Along with this amazing survival trick comes extreme resistance to heat, cold and radiation —so tardigrades seemed like an ideal animal to test in space. .......................