Luckily for them, this is a Chinese research team. An US based team doing this would get the tardigrades deported because the tattoo allegedly said "MS-13".
This is a funny joke, but I wish there was a rule about introducing the theme of contemporary US politics/culture wars in threads where they are not already present. It seems to serve as high-vcass flamebait.
(I know there is already a rule about metaposting to complain about rules, please consider this well-intentioned civil disobedience.)
I find humor to be a welcome breath of fresh air in a room full of stale hot air. I reject the view that this forum has to be a dry meeting of the minds.
I work with live tardigrades under a microscope and you could easily squish them with a little metal pick, or by pressing on the glass coverslip.
Tardigrades are very different from amoeba. They have a well-defined cuticle exoskeleton surrounding a liquid space, about 1000 cells, while an amoeba is single cell and highly deformable.
I suspect if you really tried to deposit a pile of tardigrades on your finger and squeezed really tight you could probably damage them with the ridges of your fingerprints. I don't know enough about the biophysics of finger pressure and how the surfaces interact, and I wouldn't really want to do this (feels cruel, even if they have very limited nervous systems).
I'm trying to think of practical use cases for this. Is surveillance one of them? Could you drop a bunch of these marked tardigrades on an object or on money and later identify it?
Doesn't seem like a very efficient way to accomplish the goal, but it would make for a great plot line in a spy movie.
Here's a fun thought-experiment: imagine that NASA began with the truism that tardigrades are the best fit candidates for astronauts[1]. They put all their effort and money into robotics and tech to support little tardigrade colonies on The Moon and Mars.
Present day, this alternate universe has the same boring space tourism for humans that we have. But they also have a vibrant inter-planetary research program with robot-assisted colonies of tattooed tardigrades, doing all kinds of experiments, most of which are broadcast back home.
And honestly, by the time we get tech to figure out how to terraform Mars, we'd probably also have the tech to make humans more tardigrade-like. So the tardigrade astronaut program (TAP for short) would provide an important body of knowledge for the necessary biological changes.
Just seems like a better use of astronaut dollars all around[2].
1: I mean, they come standard with little space suits! C'mon!
Edit:
2: And think of the savings: I just found the first batch of candidates for the TAP's Mercury project by picking up a wet leaf.
by the time we have the tech to figure out how to terraform Mars
A billion year oxidization event that forms an atmosphere, creates water from nothing, and ignites the core of the planet triggering tectonic activity?
The myth of humans "terraforming Mars" is so far from reality it makes me question the aptitude of anyone suggesting it.
Presumably it's at least worth considering if such a pessimistic attitude is warranted. Such a slow oxidation rate is certainly not warranted on a chemical process level. The trick is performing this chemical process 1.5 AU away.
Absolutely, don't mistake my cynicism for defeatism. I want it as badly as anyone else, but the chemical and thermodynamic makeup of Mars does not warrant optimism (given present knowledge).
Bezos's vision is better than Musk's. This plan to gravitationally disrupt Ceres and turn 100% of it into habitat strictly dominates all other space colonization ideas in our solar system not least that it can provide more square feet of habitat than Earth does but probably not the 0.2 km^3 of ocean per person or the 0.7 million tons of atmosphere per person that we have, areas where Biosphere 2 fell tragically short. [1]
[1] CO2 levels swung violently from day to night in Biosphere 2 because they didn't have enough atmosphere relative to plants and animals; Biosphere 2 probably shouldn't have tried to simulate oceans at all
"After this first step, Zhao and Qiu hope that this work could enable advancements such as microbial cyborgs and other biomedical applications in the future."
I'm not sure if i shoud be happy microbial cyborgs exist.
Identifying tardigrades seems like obvious problem for this solution. You are doing experiments and want to track individuals overtime I don't think there is that many identifying features in them. So you need something.
> this technique could be suitable for printing micro-electronics or sensors onto living tissue.
I was thinking we could use tattoos to identify tardigrades, like how they tag animals for research purposes, but this is next level.
Great, in a few years those tardigrades will be asking the same scientists about laser removal.
Luckily for them, this is a Chinese research team. An US based team doing this would get the tardigrades deported because the tattoo allegedly said "MS-13".
This is a funny joke, but I wish there was a rule about introducing the theme of contemporary US politics/culture wars in threads where they are not already present. It seems to serve as high-vcass flamebait.
(I know there is already a rule about metaposting to complain about rules, please consider this well-intentioned civil disobedience.)
> I wish there was a rule about introducing the theme of contemporary US politics/culture wars in threads where they are not already present.
This falls under "eschew flamebait" and "avoid generic tangents," no? (I also chuckled for whatever it's worth.)
It certainly doesn't add anything of substance to content in the article.
I find humor to be a welcome breath of fresh air in a room full of stale hot air. I reject the view that this forum has to be a dry meeting of the minds.
Impressive... and more research needed:
> About 40% of the tardigrades survived the procedure
Still impressive!
"New Laser kills 60% of Tardigrades" wasn't as snappy for the paper headline.
Tardigrades are quite durable otherwise.
Yes, durable enough to power FTL starships in the future!
only in their dried-out state. Under regular conditions, they are easily squished.
OK, how? All the photos I've seen of them are taken with SEMs, implying that you can't squish them any more than you can squish an amoeba.
I work with live tardigrades under a microscope and you could easily squish them with a little metal pick, or by pressing on the glass coverslip.
Tardigrades are very different from amoeba. They have a well-defined cuticle exoskeleton surrounding a liquid space, about 1000 cells, while an amoeba is single cell and highly deformable.
Ahh, I thought you meant with your fingers or something, that makes sense.
I suspect if you really tried to deposit a pile of tardigrades on your finger and squeezed really tight you could probably damage them with the ridges of your fingerprints. I don't know enough about the biophysics of finger pressure and how the surfaces interact, and I wouldn't really want to do this (feels cruel, even if they have very limited nervous systems).
It’s a bit less impressive considering they are tardigrades and can survive almost anything.
Though I guess tattooing a hardy animal is more difficult.
It's a bit more impressive when you consider the size of these buddies.
That’s what made it impressive in the first plane.
I want a Far Side cartoon depicting this.
... I think there will be a lot of competition for the Ig Nobels this year.
> 40% survived the procedure.
And it's a long way from 'survived' to 'prospered'. Are we sure this is the most humane thing to do?
I don't think society is at a place where asking whether something is the most humane towards tardigrades makes sense to most people.
Yeah, but somehow blasting tardigrades with an electron beam to write on them feels a little cruel to me.
I'm trying to think of practical use cases for this. Is surveillance one of them? Could you drop a bunch of these marked tardigrades on an object or on money and later identify it?
Doesn't seem like a very efficient way to accomplish the goal, but it would make for a great plot line in a spy movie.
Here's a fun thought-experiment: imagine that NASA began with the truism that tardigrades are the best fit candidates for astronauts[1]. They put all their effort and money into robotics and tech to support little tardigrade colonies on The Moon and Mars.
Present day, this alternate universe has the same boring space tourism for humans that we have. But they also have a vibrant inter-planetary research program with robot-assisted colonies of tattooed tardigrades, doing all kinds of experiments, most of which are broadcast back home.
And honestly, by the time we get tech to figure out how to terraform Mars, we'd probably also have the tech to make humans more tardigrade-like. So the tardigrade astronaut program (TAP for short) would provide an important body of knowledge for the necessary biological changes.
Just seems like a better use of astronaut dollars all around[2].
1: I mean, they come standard with little space suits! C'mon!
Edit:
2: And think of the savings: I just found the first batch of candidates for the TAP's Mercury project by picking up a wet leaf.
The myth of humans "terraforming Mars" is so far from reality it makes me question the aptitude of anyone suggesting it.
Presumably it's at least worth considering if such a pessimistic attitude is warranted. Such a slow oxidation rate is certainly not warranted on a chemical process level. The trick is performing this chemical process 1.5 AU away.
Absolutely, don't mistake my cynicism for defeatism. I want it as badly as anyone else, but the chemical and thermodynamic makeup of Mars does not warrant optimism (given present knowledge).
Bezos's vision is better than Musk's. This plan to gravitationally disrupt Ceres and turn 100% of it into habitat strictly dominates all other space colonization ideas in our solar system not least that it can provide more square feet of habitat than Earth does but probably not the 0.2 km^3 of ocean per person or the 0.7 million tons of atmosphere per person that we have, areas where Biosphere 2 fell tragically short. [1]
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.07487
[1] CO2 levels swung violently from day to night in Biosphere 2 because they didn't have enough atmosphere relative to plants and animals; Biosphere 2 probably shouldn't have tried to simulate oceans at all
"After this first step, Zhao and Qiu hope that this work could enable advancements such as microbial cyborgs and other biomedical applications in the future."
I'm not sure if i shoud be happy microbial cyborgs exist.
You can stick something onto a human cell to reprogram its behavior
https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/a-backpack-full-of-multiple-sc...
Radical modifications of cell membranes have been a think for a while
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg#Bacterial_cyborg_cells
and of course there is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cell
and rapid advancement in synthetic biology.
Just wait until the microbial cyborg hackers: "This body has been pwned by Micro squad"
How does one come up with such an idea in the first place?
Identifying tardigrades seems like obvious problem for this solution. You are doing experiments and want to track individuals overtime I don't think there is that many identifying features in them. So you need something.
It's an obvious progression from burning ants woth a magnifying glass
1. "We need some funding"
2. "Hey, I got an idea!"
Now we can finally prove we're not just seeing the same tardigrade everywhere! lol
Finally.
With all the recent existential threats to humankind, tardigrades have become an emerging market for fashionable luxury goods and services
How long until companies pay to have their logos painted on tardigrades' backs?
Tardigrades have always been punk
[flagged]
Trump has found a way to accuse tardigrades of being gang members