So you think you're tuff . . .

Meet the water bear (or tardigrade for all you biologists out there).



Cuddily little fellow, isn't he? Water bears have 8 little legs and range in size from 0.1 mm to 1.5 mm.

But appearances can be deceiving. Water bears are perhaps the toughest creatures on the planet. Check out this entry from Wikipedia:

Tardigrades . . . are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of -273°C, close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals such as humans, almost a decade without water, and even the vacuum of space. In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum (and extreme sterilizing UV radiation) of space. After they were returned to Earth, it was discovered that many of them survived and laid eggs that hatched normally, making these the only animals shown to be able to survive the vacuum of space.

So I was just thinking . . .

Suppose a few water bears are hang'n out having a few pints and one of them says, "hold my beer and watch this". What exactly would it take to impress the other water bears! Hitch a ride on the outside of the spaceshuttle for a week long rip into outer space? Nope, too easy. Never mind jumping into a frozen lake after being in a sauna like the Swedes. How about floating around in a pot of boiling water and then taking a swan dive into a vat of liquid nitrogen! Yawn, been there, done that.

I got it! What could be more excruciating than watching a weekend marathon of this: