The toughest animal on the planet

Not really the kind of animal you see everyday as they are only about 1 mm to 1.5 mm long but still, they are animal.

The toughest, hardest creature is a tardigrade, also known as a water bear. They are found everywhere in the world, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, and there are more than 900 species of them.


Tardigrades or water bear. Freeze them, dry them, expose them to radiation and they're so resilient they'll still be alive! Image credit: Dailymail



Image credit: Dailymail


Tardigrades can dehydrate their bodies to just 1% of their normal water content. Without water, most chemical reactions happen too slowly to harm them and ice crystals can’t rupture their cells. They are extremophiles – animals that can exist in the most hostile of conditions.

They have been boiled at over 150ºC and frozen in liquid nitrogen without any noticeable harm. They can survive pressures of 6,000 atmospheres and in 2007, the Russian FOTON-M3 spacecraft took tardigrade passengers into orbit.

After 12 days exposed to the vacuum, cold and radiation of space, they hadn’t just survived; they had laid eggs that hatched! Pretty cool.


Now, for a comparison, the bears, despite their big and tough body build, is nothing compared to the toughness and survivability of the tardigrades.


The Bear that we know; only more than a thousand times bigger. Image credit: fanpop.com


References: Dailymail, Sciencefocus

$1.76 Million Wooden Cottage

Wooden cottage for US$1,760,000? Sure this is in New York, but can I not buy 20-30 small, old houses like that (looks more like hut to me) for such price? Surely it must be a camouflage of something.

Image by: Select Sotheby's International Realty

The property looks just like a typical weekend chalet in the forested Adirondack Mountains, according to AFP report. But that is what you see from above the ground. Go underground (literally) and you will see why it's just the tip of an iceberg you saw up there.

It further explained:

First comes the old underground missile control center, refitted as luxury housing. From there, you enter a tunnel, passing several massive blast doors, into the now empty silo descending seven floors down.

For the James Bond wannabe, the property, which can be viewed on http://www.coldwarmissilesilo.com/index.htm, also has its own airstrip.

The Atlas-F missile site, part of the first generation of "super-hardened" silos, was activated in 1961 and closed in 1965, then later bought by businessman Bruce Francisco. A black and white picture on the property's web ad shows an intercontinental missile protruding from the silo's open doors. - AFP

You can view the photographic details of the silo from Sotheby's website.

If you want to live in a silo like that, I'm putting my money that you are interested with none other than to protect yourself from intense bombing of up to 200psi blast, and for a nice cool hideout when things get messy.

My question is that, if this place is intended to be a safe heaven, why must the plans/drawings and pictures be revealed to the public in great detail?

Perhaps it's a better idea to radically convert this to a museum of sort and make it a tourist attraction.