Life finds a way

Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science) has two interesting posts on tiny life forms with interesting adaptations. The first post deals with the ability of tardigrades (commonly called water bears) to survive the vacuum of space (Current Biology paper here). They do so by replacing water in their bodies with trehalose (a type of sugar) and entering a dormant state; this allows them to survive conditions, including dehydration, vacuum, extremely low temperatures, and in rare cases, large doses of ultraviolet radiation.

The second post deals with the compact genome (~160-kb) of the bacterium Carsonella ruddii, which is found in specialized cells (bacteriocytes) of a group of sap-feeding insects called the psyllids. This bacterium is very organelle-like, both in its role producing nutrients (mostly) absent in the host organism's diet and in its inability to survive outside of the host cell (since Carsonella lack many of the genes required by free living organisms). More importantly, the sequencing of this genome lends further credance to the endosymbiotic theory for the origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts. Take that, all you Creationists — evolution works!