The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 22, 2011

Official News page 3


REAL LIFE NEWS: BEARS... IN... SPAAAAACE

by Hazed

Before you start picturing a grizzly being squashed into the space shuttle, these bears are not the ursine kind, but water bears - the cute-sounding name for some very strange microscopic creatures called tardigrades.

Back in 2007, some tardigrades became the first animals to survive being exposed to space. Unphased by the sub-zero temperatures, the lack of oxygen, the vacuum or the solar winds, they have been called the hardiest animal on Earth - and off it!

Now they are back in space, having gone up with the last space shuttle. Scientists want to find out more about how these organisms manage to survive such extreme conditions.

Project Bio, sponsored by the Italian Space Agency, will investigate the impact of a short space flight on tardigrades and other microscopic organisms, using seven experiments to investigate on a molecular level any changes in their cells or their genetic information when exposed to space vacuum and cosmic radiation.

You can read more about the water bears in space here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12855775.


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