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"Water Bears" First Animals to Survive Trip Into Space Naked
Adam Korbitz writes "New Scientist and Science Daily are reporting the results of an intriguing experiment in which scientists launched tardigrades or 'water bears' — tiny invertebrates about one millimeter long — into space onboard the European Space Agency's FOTON-M3 spacecraft. After 10 days in the vacuum of space, the satellite returned to Earth and the tardigrades were recovered. The tardigrades survived the vacuum just fine, but exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet radiation proved deadly for most of the water bears. However, some did survive. The tardigrades are the first animals to have survived such an experiment, a feat previously achieved only by lichens and bacteria."
The headline should really read "Tardigrades First Animals to Survive Exposure to Vacuum of Space". I mean, we've sent astronauts into orbit, and let them walk around, but usually not naked.
There was a countdown of animals that had the most extreme survival conditions, and they outperformed cockroaches by quite a bit. They used computer software to show what the equivalent for a human would be under those circumstances, and visualized the radiation with drums of nuclear waste and bombs or something. Not only can they survive no pressure in the vacuum of space, but they can survive under thousands of pounds of water pressure in the ocean.
One scientist had left a tardigrade in a miniature desert for 20 years, and it popped right back up when they just added water. They also can survive extreme heat, salt, and acid. The most amazing thing is that they can probably be found in your own backyard.
A vacuum pump and a UV lamp are all you need to perform this experiment on Earth... No rockets required. What lame "research".
You do realize that they do a lot of experiments in this mission (Foton-M3) at once.
The animals are only very small and I can't see them taking much room. Why not put them in if they fit?
Plus, on Earth it is hard to simulate near zero-G effects that you can get with a satellite in orbit around Earth (okay it is not really zero-G because it is still near the Earth, but the trajectory induces similar conditions).
The experiments have been done ; no need for doubt or supposition.
Look at either common design of Scuba regulator, or their commercial equivalents ("full face masks") ; where is the pressure regulator? Either between the shoulder blades (and so just a few cm vertical distance from the lungs) ; or at the user's mouth (so getting perhaps 15cm from the top of the diver's lungs) ; or on the diver's cheek (same comment).
Very occasionally you'll see people using a twin-hose airset mounted at the waist, so with the regulator up to 40cm deeper than the lungs. This is strongly discouraged because of two hazards - kinking the hoses and air embolism. It's really a "don't do this" situation - only try it if you're definitely going to die otherwise. (I speak as a diver with a non-trivial log book of near-death experiences. Which is why I stopped diving.)
People have an excessive confidence in the abilities of their bodies. Seriously, don't act on your "doubts" and suppositions. Speak to proper dive training organisations. The only substitute for learning from other people's experiments is doing it yourself, and possibly dieing.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"