https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-bears-glass-all-full

 

Something spotted before, but not understood quite as well: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19732016

 

I like water bears, and not just because they look like the Aunts in "A Wrinkle In Time". ( photo: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-bears’-genetic-borrowing-questioned) To say that this is possiby the coolest thing a water bear can do is to say something.

 

Maybe because human packaging is almost always designed to prevent water from affecting the contents, this comes from left field - but methinks those guys need to get hold of a patent attorney.

Edited January 23, 201610 yr by overtone

This also came out recently: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35323237

 

These little guys survived over 30 years at -20^oC! I wonder if it had something to do with these "glass-like" proteins you're talking about. I also know that tardigrades can produce trehalose, a sugar which apparently preserves their cellular membranes when they're completely dried out.

 

(original scientific article for those more curious: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011224015300134)

 

Makes me wonder about the interactions between these so-called glass-like proteins and the trehalose. Maybe having both mechanisms is what makes them so resistant to extreme temperatures?

The species in the OP paper showing the highest temperature tolerance while glassed up, Milnesium tardigradum, does not apparently form trehalose. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18070104