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The last I checked amoebas certainly don't have neurons. Where's your proof that they don't feel anything? They sure seem to react to the environment and it's not just dumb reflexes. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/feed.html
Some even build shells!

I suspect the main difference between single celled creatures and us is the single celled creatures haven't managed to scale to our size and thus get our abilities.

If you pilot an amoeba, you're not going to do that much fancy stuff even if you're a hotshot. Whereas a large committee/organization of neurons controlling a body can do more fancy stuff.

Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot.

What makes you so certain? If you were in a cockroach body you would have limited senses and physical abilities, so even if you feel horror and misery how would you prove it to some human? Cockroaches may not pass IQ tests, but how can you be so sure they don't feel pain, horror and misery? And how much can you learn with a limited cockroach body? They certainly do have memory: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927132543.htm

Maybe amoebas too: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/feed.html
Some amoebas even build elaborate shells:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/shelled.html
Instinct maybe, but what's instinct then? And how sure are you that horror and misery don't come with instinct either? After all pain, horror and misery would be more useful concepts than passing IQ tests to most creatures on this planet and elsewhere even.

I think we're are still far from understanding thought and consciousness.

By the way there are single neurons that specialize in going "BINGO!" whenever someone thinks "Halle Berry".
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Single-Cell-Recognition-Research-6260.aspx

Who knows, an individual amoeba might be potentially more intelligent than a single neuron. But there is currently no way for an amoeba to be hooked up to a suitable body to prove otherwise, no super exoskeleton or mecha robot equivalent that it can pilot and be provide supersenses. In contrast, multi-cellular animals allow a bunch of neurons to pilot a body and have their senses extended. But the neurons still have to specialize and cooperate with other neurons to fire the impulses to move limbs, receive impulses etc. A single cell wouldn't be able to do it plus there is no redundancy - if the entire body is controlled by a single cell and that cell dies without a replacement, the body is in trouble.

Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot.

What makes you so certain? If you were in a cockroach body you would have limited senses and physical abilities, so even if you feel horror and misery how would you prove it to some human? Cockroaches may not pass IQ tests, but how can you be so sure they don't feel pain, horror and misery? And how much can you learn with a limited cockroach body? They certainly do have memory: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927132543.htm

Maybe amoebas too: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/feed.html
Some amoebas even build elaborate shells:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/shelled.html
Instinct maybe, but what's instinct then? And how sure are you that horror and misery don't come with instinct either? After all pain, horror and misery would be more useful concepts than passing IQ tests to most creatures on this planet and elsewhere even.

I think we're are still far from understanding thought and consciousness.

By the way there are single neurons that specialize in going "BINGO!" whenever someone thinks "Halle Berry".
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Single-Cell-Recognition-Research-6260.aspx

Who knows, an individual amoeba might be potentially more intelligent than a single neuron. But there is currently no way for an amoeba to be hooked up to a suitable body to prove otherwise, no super exoskeleton or mecha robot equivalent that it can pilot and be provide supersenses. In contrast, multi-cellular animals allow a bunch of neurons to pilot a body and have their senses extended. But the neurons still have to specialize and cooperate with other neurons to fire the impulses to move limbs, receive impulses etc. A single cell wouldn't be able to do it plus there is no redundancy - if the entire body is controlled by a single cell and that cell dies without a replacement, the body is in trouble.

They breathe through their skin via osmosis and not via lungs.

We all breathe using osmosis. The trick is getting the oxygen to the area where osmosis takes place, and that is NOT the skin on insects.

There is also a type of fish that have telescopic eyes:

The telescope fish

Telescopefish

I wonder if human bred species should get a mention:

Celestial Eye Goldfish

Bubble Eye Goldfish

my old Intel digital scope, which has been gathering dust for about 5 years now.

Wow, Windoze only with all sorts of issues. Check out the QX3 support page. Of course, you can's use it with Vista. Too bad, because it's a nifty scope.

This newer scope is cheaper and can be used with an ordinary TV or bt878 capture card.

Then again, you would be surprised by the quality of image you can get with a few simple lenses and an ordinary digital camera. Binocular lenses make for nice macro lenses. The front lens gets you closer to the subject and eyepiece lenses make good macro lenses. Good quality surplus microscopes are also available for $100 or so.

Just do complement the info..
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html? http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjan00/spile g.html

I know , I know, I'm a Karma whore, but spiders are cool!

from here: In the Philosophical Transactions (Abridged), Volume 4, 1694-1702 pp. 97-101 + 1 plate, there is an article by Stephen Gray on "Microscopical Observations and Experiments" in which Mr. Gray explains the making of a water microscope.

These are found quite often.

If you found a frog in most products you'd be disgusted. Here it's a good thing. Anyone know who does their PR?

What has dating got to do with Chocolate Chip Starfish?

We can just cross-splice astronauts and water bears. Water bears laugh at your puny cosmic rays! (If they laughed, which they don't because they are too tough for that kind of crap.)

The truth is probably somewhere in between : you are a mollusk of the species Lampsilis virescens.

Be careful not to jump to conclusions, the argument doesn't necessarily follow.

Perhaps, "inter-stellar" life and generation of methane and ammonia is much more common then we think?

Deinococcus radiodurans

Water Bears

Emiliania Huxleyi

Science is so dead these days.

We need to use our imaginations a little more...

--jsms III

p.s.
There is no energy crisis. 1 sq-m of sunshine == 1 kilowatt, the oceans have trillions of tons of methane hydrates.

The problem is one of $$$, big business, politics, and distibution. It's not technological, it's not for want of supply.

Enough solar energy falls on earth in less than an hour to power the whole planet's human wants and needs for a year.

More than a few organisms use silica to create microscopic structual elements. These include horsetails (Equisetum), the stinging tree of Queensland and diatoms.

From this article... The waterbear can revert to an "instant coffee"-dry state which resists storage in liquid nitrogen, contact with mineral acids, organic solvents, radioactive radiation and boiling water. After this kind of brute "scientific" scrutiny the miraculous creature is still able to return to normal life--it needs only a small droplet of water!

...nobody has yet said whether the smallest elf is executable or not? I would imagine that unless he's a water bear, we're probably still going to be able to execute him.

These guys can be frozen in liquid nitrogen, exsposed to deadly radiation, acid, base, whatever, these guys are indestructable. I am glad they are non-pathnogenic.

still smaller, and not parasitic either.

For work like this, I like my QX3. Cheap and powerful.

There's a short review of its capabilities here, but this site has some amazing hacks that enable it to do darkfield, polarized, Rheinberg, or even simulated Hoffman modulation contrast viewing.