Tardigrades, or 'water bears ', are microscopic animals that
live in soil and other environments. They are among the hardiest
creatures around, able to survive huge doses of radiation,
extreme pressure, and being dried out for years. (Click on the
image above to watch one in action.) But can they survive
exposure to the vacuum of space? That's a question that
scientists hope to answer with an experiment currently flying on
the Foton-M3 Earth-orbiting space mission. "For the first time
ever, animals are now being exposed to an unmitigated space
environment, with both vacuum conditions and cosmic radiation,"
says project leader Ingemar Jönsson of Kristianstad University
in Sweden. After the experiment returns to Earth, scientists
will examine the tardigrades to see if they survived, and if so,
whether they have any genetic damage and are still able to
reproduce. Jönsson has a blog about the experiment's progress.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out. They really
are tough little creatures, and I'm b