Hank explains why NASA and the European Space Agency are in love with tardigrades and how these extremophiles are helping us study the panspermia hypothesis. Follow SciShow on Twitter! / scishow Like SciShow on Facebook! / scishow
wouldn't the best way to test the panspermia hypothesis be to shoot some tardigrades at mars and then go see how they're doing with the rover? because... idk. do that.
or.. if the tardigrades were shot off to Mars.. perhaps instead of being toxic to the martian environment and destroying native life, which there is none off, they actually start the process of creating a livable environment.
On the contrary, have they found conditions that life could be even possible? There is still a very poor atmosphere, and little to no liquid water. Those probes are not just to try and find life. They are also being sent to look for ways to make Mars resemble Earth, and make it somewhat habitable.
They only shortened the mission, so keep your panties on. Of course, if you`re parading around pantiless, I`m sure than can be allowed by the men of RU-vid.
Dragon's Realm If these cute little beasts can survive a Justin Bieber concert, then Tardigrades will be hailed as the toughest creatures in the Universe.
Dragon's Realm Considering how small these guys are compared to the blades, and how much pressure they can withstand...I think they'd be fine in a blender. They'd be knocked around and think you're a douche, but they'd be fine.
Hey, man, you make biology very easy to understand and you are witty and funny. I already knew about epigenetics (I watched your other video on that) and tardigrades, but watching your videos did not feel repetitive nor boring to me. I hope you are a teacher, because pupils deserve it! Cheers! :)
High special defence, 0 defence/attack/special attack. If something's only method of attack is a laser cannon, they will survive, but if a snail accidentally steps on it, it'll die
That stylized tardigrade animation in the background is SO CUTE. :3 I was actually kind of surprised that someone didn't say, "tardigrades in space, hmm, let's draw cute little space helmets on these buggers." But tardigrades don't NEED space helmets, because they are that awesomely tough.
and thus the interstellar tardigrade empire was born. first they conquered earth, then mars. soon the entire galaxy fell under rule of the tardigrade emperor.
"Alright men, you have billions of dollars of funding, the backing of a nation, and brains of ten men apiece, what will you use this space shuttle on?" "Should totally launch water bears into space with it" -NASA 2007 Water Bears OP, do nerf
KinghtofZero00 After 5 months they would violently burst out of your body while roaring like a bear. Then they would hold a meeting and consider taking over our planet. Any questions?
Marvin Evolution To answer that we must first ask our selves. What value does human life have? We all should know by now that tardigrades are the supreme leaders of the infinite space. We are the slaves created for the sole purpose of protecting tardigrade habitat. They created alcohol so that we would have unprotected sex at parties and make more workers for tardigrade economy to flourish. To answer your question Marvin. The best you can hope for is to be their breeding sow.
+Elliott Collins Yeah, you have to move the lights further back and less intent to avoid the glare. I hate glasses on a host. Squint and make the lighting designer's life easier. lol
So the Tardigrades have worked out how to get us to help them colonise space? Did NASA really think this was a good idea? Did the Tardigrades "evolve" to use humans in the most efficient way to further their space conquest?
Tadashi Mori They can be aliens in the sense that they can probably reach other planets if Earth explodes and a wad of tardigrades land on another hospitable planet.
Tadashi Mori These tardigrades are small animals, which would make them multicellular organisms. If they would be the origin of life on earth, all life on earth would have evolved from these multicellular organisms. That would make single-cell microbes unaccounted for, because I don't think single-cell organisms would evolve from multi-cellular organisms. (at least, that is my assumption). I do suppose they would be able to spring life on other planets, where all lifeforms would be multicellular.
+Martin Zant To be honest, life "evolved" (innovated) towards the most distant biotopes on earth, just to have "less" competition. So why would evolution be impossible toward smaller and simpler organisms if that would mean for that organism to be in a less competitive environment?
+Wandelaarke going further... I think it's safe to say that the organisms we today call Tardigrades are evolved from something that was before them. Maybe they lost function to actually thrive in these harsh conditions because that cost more to have than it brought in. But, ofcourse, that sort of hibernation-state they can go in must have proven them enough profit to actually keep that talent over time. No thing is completely still over time.
Thank you for the video of a Tardigrade from under neath - I"ve seen them thru microscopes before, but this is the first time I saw how they could even remotely look like a "bear"
Do you know that we actually eat tardigrades everyday? Well, they live everywhere and anywhere. So vegans can't even really be vegans cos they also live on vegetables. Doesn't matter if we boil them or wash them off, they'll still live.
Technically they stand the chance of surviving in the stomach and intestines. So a vegan could eat a tardisgrade without killing it. IDK the vegan mantra but I suppose if it doesn't "die" then eating it would be fine.
devON cyban Vegetarian means that you do not eat milk, pretty sure that you talk about vegans. Vegans are the people who only eat plants and nothing else.
I thought TECHNICALLY tardigrades aren't proper extremophiles? The definition of extremophile is an organism which trhives in an extreme environment - tardigrades can just survive in mad places, and their chances of mortality increase the longer they're there
Yes, that's right. I agree that tardigrades shouldn't really be classified as extremophiles since they thrive mainly in aquatic, mildly violent environments. I think most people just lump them with actual extremophiles just because they can simply survive such extreme conditions through their cryptobiosis. It makes me wonder though: why would they have such an ability if they don't actually prefer those environments? Perhaps their ancestors were extremophiles at some point, but later expanded to thrive in the milder environments they live in today.
Cassandra Sweetman When I said that, I just meant to refer to environments that are considerably less "extreme" than the typical extremophile environment. The whole idea of an environment being "extreme" is, of course, relative to the kinds of environments that most macroscopic animals like us can endure.
+Gigabyte Spyder we did a study on tardigrades in an after school thing several months ago, and the presenter/scientist said that tardigrades usually prefer semi-aquatic environments (in the folds of moss). They theorized that tardigrades' hibernation/crypt - like state was so that, in the event of a drought or something, they would be able to survive until the environment becomes suitable again.
123goldenlily Yep, that's exactly what they use their cryptobiosis to do; that's how they were able to survive the vacuum of space and other inhospitable environments, but since they don't *thrive* in those conditions, they shouldn't be classified as extremophiles.
I'm so thankful for this video. The TARDIS in the thumbnail made me watch it, which got me hooked on scishow, which introduced me to Vlogbrothers and everything in Nerdfighteria.
Wow, this is *_old!_* Man, Hank sounds more like a heavily buzzed college student rambling about something interesting he learned in his Bio class than a professional internet star!
Wait a second. These little unkillable creature can exist, that should mean the life on other planets can exist too. Underground life maybe, we won't see the water underground, so there might be water inside all cold planets which means life.
Europa and Ganymedes (Jupiter moons) are places which NASA and ESA want to send rovers. For example, Europa is believed to have internal ocean at liquid state.
As a genuine fan of Doctor Who, and someone who had watched every episode including all the available Classic Who episodes, my face lit up once I found out that the Tardigrades In Space project got shortened to Tardis. I'm from Canada and here Doctor Who isn't very popular so it makes me happy when people reference the show in any way.
if they are so robust how would they evolve? earth's environment isn't extreme enough to force them to adapt and if they can survive that much ionizing radiation shouldn't they be mutation resistant.
As far as i am getting it,the tardigrades are basically aliens that evolved elsewhere (now that i think about it reminds me a lot of superman)and crashed down to earth millions of years ago
I read an article about these little beasties a while back, and I think I squee'd when I saw they're also called water bears. Tardigrades have been one of my favorite creatures since then.
I want to find a t-shirt that says "water bear don't care" but I can only find ones that say "tardigrade don't care..." ummmmm, excuse me, no, that doesn't rhyme at all. Where can I find this t-shirt I seek?!!?!
Whoa! So here's what just happened: I was watching a SciShow vid, and I clicked on a recommended video. I watched that second one, but then decided to go back to watch one of the recommended vids on the first video. The ad finished (Geico one with the dudes' hanging high five in the air) and the first video started playing before I found this one... meanwhile your intro tune had already started... when I clicked over to here it picked up RIGHT where your intro tune had left off, skipping the ad (sorry, though kinda fair) so I could get straight into the video I was trying to watch next. It was a rare smooth moment in RU-vid for me and I am excited enough to share it.
Ok so I just watched this video for a school assignment, and apparently nobody knows why the water bears are so tough. My theory is that when humanity dies, either from radiation, the sun going out, etc., water bears would still be alive. Then, they would evolve and over time it would repeat the cycle until humans are back but even stronger than before. The water bears could be like the ones who make sure there is always life on earth 😱
Those graphics managed to make tardigrades cute...like koala catepillars. They were already awesome and freaking looking, so cute is a commendable accomplishment.
I think the only way that they could have evolved such toughness is if they lived in the harsh environment of space. Hey, they could have arrived on the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. In that case, they would be ancient aliens, and therefore responsible for the Egyptian pyramids and Stone Henge.
It'd be the same as what would happen when the proverbial irresistible force meets the proverbial immovable object: They both stop, regard each other for a moment, slightly incline their heads and say, 'sup. And then they move on, graciously allowing the universe to carry on existing.
I read that they are not extremophiles because they only tolerate extreme temperatures and might eventually die if exposed for too long and don't thrive in those conditions whereas extremophiles only live in those conditions. Still very interesting they can survive at least 10 days in space, then the question is if they are wedged into a meteorite or comet does the comet provide some insulation so they could survive for extended periods enough to go from one solar system to the next?
Poc Kocmoc shared a post about tardigrades with the Space community of Google plus. I had to look them up. There is also a clip from Cosmos which has them on an episode.
I think the fact that they are called TARDIgrades and they look like tiny Appa's (from avatar) automatically makes them the greatest creature in human existence.
I believe that in fact they aren't extremophiles, because they don't grow or live in extreme environments. They are "extremotolerants". It just happens that their resistant state is not a unicellular spore but them whole bodies.
They live on basically all moss everywhere. You just soak the moss, wash it off, and look at the water under a microscope until you find these little guys swimming around. I would google the exact procedure, but you should definitely do this! -Jacob
So thinking about what you said about tardigrades getting smashed off the earth and flung into space to land and bring life to other planets, I had a funny hypothetical thought. What if tardigrades couldn't evolve? Sure there would be life on the planet, but if they couldn't evolve or were so adaptive to change that they never "mutated" and evolved into other species. Then you would just have a planet full of tardigrades and it may not explain how life began. Just a thought though.
That's some solid input and I respect that, so thank you. Sometimes I wish evolution as a whole worked faster so we could see the progress, but alas time is often not on our side. Though what I meant to get at it, is that tardigrades are so resilient that they don't really have a reason to evolve, which I admit I didn't express clearly. Kind of like the whole "If it isn't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Either way, your point is true that evolution does rely on gene selection, and if they did get blown away to another planet their genetic makeup might have cause to appropriately select genes for that specific atmosphere and conditions.
Great video on Tardegrades! Btw Showing your video to my gf who is an optician and she's wigging out because you don't have anti reflective lenses in your glasses. She says that the glasses will look a lot better on video if you get anti reflective coating, plus it improves the optics of the lens.
0:54 "...when the environment gets too tough, they just shrivel up and die. For a while. With the option of reviving when conditions improve." I have never empathised with, or wanted to be, a microscopic creature more than when I heard these words. Where do I sign up for the operation to become one of these adorable little squirts? (edit:timestamp)
You can’t buy them but they are on all moss everywhere, pretty much. It’s pretty easy to extract them, you just wash them off the moss, basically. It’s actually a really cool procedure, you should google the exact directions and do it! -Jacob
oh my god several years ago before i knew who hank was i remember learning about tardigrades in biology and our teacher showed us a video about them and WATCHING THIS VIDEO NOW I HAVE REALISED THAT IT WAS THIS AND I HAD NO IDEA AND I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M SO EXCITED BUT I AM IT'S GREAT I'M SO HAPPY sorry
