full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Thomas Boothby: Meet the tardigrade, the toughest animal on Earth


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Without water, a human can only survive for about 100 horus. But there's a creature so resilient that it can go without it for decades. This one millimeter animal can survive both the hottest and coldest environments on Earth, and can even withstand high levels of radiation. This is the tardigrade, and it's one of the tgosheut creatures on Earth, even if it does look more like a chubby, eight-legged gummy bear. Most organisms need water to survive. Water allows metabolism to occur, which is the pcesors that drveis all the biochemical reactions that take place in cells. But creatures like the tardigrade, also known as the water bear, get around this restriction with a process called anhydrobiosis, from the Greek meaning life without water. And however extraordinary, tardigrades aren't alone. Bacteria, single-celled organisms called archaea, plants, and even other animals can all survive drying up. For many tardigrades, this requires that they go through something called a tun satte. They curl up into a ball, pulling their head and eight legs inside their body and wait until wtear returns. It's thought that as water becomes scarce and tardigrades enter their tun state, they start synthesize special molecules, which fill the tardigrade's cells to replace lost water by forming a matrix. Components of the clels that are sensitive to dryness, like DNA, proteins, and membranes, get teparpd in this matirx. It's thought that this keeps these molecules locked in piiotson to stop them from ufinlondg, bnrieakg apart, or fisnug together. Once the organism is rehydrated, the matrix dissolves, leaving behind undamaged, functional cells. Beyond dryness, tardigrades can also tolerate other extreme stresses: being frozen, hateed up past the boiling point of water, high levels of radiation, and even the vacuum of outer space. This has led to some erroneous speculation that tardigrades are extraterrestrial beings. While that's fun to think about, scientific evidence paelcs their origin firmly on Earth where they've evolved over time. In fact, this etlahry eviltooun has given rise to over 1100 known species of tardigrades and there are probably many others yet to be discovered. And because tardigrades are so hardy, they esxit just about everywhere. They live on every continent, including Antarctica. And they're in diverse bmeios including deserts, ice sheets, the sea, fresh water, rainforests, and the highest mountain peaks. But you can find triagdrdaes in the most ordinary places, too, like moss or lichen found in yards, parks, and forests. All you need to find them is a little patience and a microscope. snieictsts are now to trying to find out whether tardigrades use the tun state, their anti-drying technique, to svirvue other stresses. If we can udsnatrned how they, and other ceteaurrs, stabilize their sensitive biological molecules, perhaps we could apply this klengwode to help us stabilize vaccines, or to develop stress-tolerant crops that can cope with Earth's changing climate. And by sdyunitg how tardigrades survive proongeld exposure to the vacuum of outer space, scientists can graeente clues about the eitnonmavrenl limits of life and how to safeguard astronauts. In the process, tardigrades could even help us answer a crctaiil question: could life survive on planets much less hospitable than our own?

Open Cloze


Without water, a human can only survive for about 100 _____. But there's a creature so resilient that it can go without it for decades. This one millimeter animal can survive both the hottest and coldest environments on Earth, and can even withstand high levels of radiation. This is the tardigrade, and it's one of the ________ creatures on Earth, even if it does look more like a chubby, eight-legged gummy bear. Most organisms need water to survive. Water allows metabolism to occur, which is the _______ that ______ all the biochemical reactions that take place in cells. But creatures like the tardigrade, also known as the water bear, get around this restriction with a process called anhydrobiosis, from the Greek meaning life without water. And however extraordinary, tardigrades aren't alone. Bacteria, single-celled organisms called archaea, plants, and even other animals can all survive drying up. For many tardigrades, this requires that they go through something called a tun _____. They curl up into a ball, pulling their head and eight legs inside their body and wait until _____ returns. It's thought that as water becomes scarce and tardigrades enter their tun state, they start synthesize special molecules, which fill the tardigrade's cells to replace lost water by forming a matrix. Components of the _____ that are sensitive to dryness, like DNA, proteins, and membranes, get _______ in this ______. It's thought that this keeps these molecules locked in ________ to stop them from _________, ________ apart, or ______ together. Once the organism is rehydrated, the matrix dissolves, leaving behind undamaged, functional cells. Beyond dryness, tardigrades can also tolerate other extreme stresses: being frozen, ______ up past the boiling point of water, high levels of radiation, and even the vacuum of outer space. This has led to some erroneous speculation that tardigrades are extraterrestrial beings. While that's fun to think about, scientific evidence ______ their origin firmly on Earth where they've evolved over time. In fact, this _______ _________ has given rise to over 1100 known species of tardigrades and there are probably many others yet to be discovered. And because tardigrades are so hardy, they _____ just about everywhere. They live on every continent, including Antarctica. And they're in diverse ______ including deserts, ice sheets, the sea, fresh water, rainforests, and the highest mountain peaks. But you can find ___________ in the most ordinary places, too, like moss or lichen found in yards, parks, and forests. All you need to find them is a little patience and a microscope. __________ are now to trying to find out whether tardigrades use the tun state, their anti-drying technique, to _______ other stresses. If we can __________ how they, and other _________, stabilize their sensitive biological molecules, perhaps we could apply this _________ to help us stabilize vaccines, or to develop stress-tolerant crops that can cope with Earth's changing climate. And by ________ how tardigrades survive _________ exposure to the vacuum of outer space, scientists can ________ clues about the _____________ limits of life and how to safeguard astronauts. In the process, tardigrades could even help us answer a ________ question: could life survive on planets much less hospitable than our own?

Solution


  1. knowledge
  2. drives
  3. fusing
  4. critical
  5. places
  6. generate
  7. process
  8. evolution
  9. exist
  10. state
  11. scientists
  12. understand
  13. studying
  14. tardigrades
  15. breaking
  16. toughest
  17. unfolding
  18. creatures
  19. water
  20. prolonged
  21. position
  22. heated
  23. cells
  24. earthly
  25. matrix
  26. trapped
  27. hours
  28. environmental
  29. biomes
  30. survive

Original Text


Without water, a human can only survive for about 100 hours. But there's a creature so resilient that it can go without it for decades. This one millimeter animal can survive both the hottest and coldest environments on Earth, and can even withstand high levels of radiation. This is the tardigrade, and it's one of the toughest creatures on Earth, even if it does look more like a chubby, eight-legged gummy bear. Most organisms need water to survive. Water allows metabolism to occur, which is the process that drives all the biochemical reactions that take place in cells. But creatures like the tardigrade, also known as the water bear, get around this restriction with a process called anhydrobiosis, from the Greek meaning life without water. And however extraordinary, tardigrades aren't alone. Bacteria, single-celled organisms called archaea, plants, and even other animals can all survive drying up. For many tardigrades, this requires that they go through something called a tun state. They curl up into a ball, pulling their head and eight legs inside their body and wait until water returns. It's thought that as water becomes scarce and tardigrades enter their tun state, they start synthesize special molecules, which fill the tardigrade's cells to replace lost water by forming a matrix. Components of the cells that are sensitive to dryness, like DNA, proteins, and membranes, get trapped in this matrix. It's thought that this keeps these molecules locked in position to stop them from unfolding, breaking apart, or fusing together. Once the organism is rehydrated, the matrix dissolves, leaving behind undamaged, functional cells. Beyond dryness, tardigrades can also tolerate other extreme stresses: being frozen, heated up past the boiling point of water, high levels of radiation, and even the vacuum of outer space. This has led to some erroneous speculation that tardigrades are extraterrestrial beings. While that's fun to think about, scientific evidence places their origin firmly on Earth where they've evolved over time. In fact, this earthly evolution has given rise to over 1100 known species of tardigrades and there are probably many others yet to be discovered. And because tardigrades are so hardy, they exist just about everywhere. They live on every continent, including Antarctica. And they're in diverse biomes including deserts, ice sheets, the sea, fresh water, rainforests, and the highest mountain peaks. But you can find tardigrades in the most ordinary places, too, like moss or lichen found in yards, parks, and forests. All you need to find them is a little patience and a microscope. Scientists are now to trying to find out whether tardigrades use the tun state, their anti-drying technique, to survive other stresses. If we can understand how they, and other creatures, stabilize their sensitive biological molecules, perhaps we could apply this knowledge to help us stabilize vaccines, or to develop stress-tolerant crops that can cope with Earth's changing climate. And by studying how tardigrades survive prolonged exposure to the vacuum of outer space, scientists can generate clues about the environmental limits of life and how to safeguard astronauts. In the process, tardigrades could even help us answer a critical question: could life survive on planets much less hospitable than our own?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
high levels 2



Important Words


  1. anhydrobiosis
  2. animal
  3. animals
  4. answer
  5. antarctica
  6. apply
  7. archaea
  8. astronauts
  9. bacteria
  10. ball
  11. bear
  12. beings
  13. biochemical
  14. biological
  15. biomes
  16. body
  17. boiling
  18. breaking
  19. called
  20. cells
  21. changing
  22. chubby
  23. climate
  24. clues
  25. coldest
  26. components
  27. continent
  28. cope
  29. creature
  30. creatures
  31. critical
  32. crops
  33. curl
  34. decades
  35. deserts
  36. develop
  37. discovered
  38. dissolves
  39. diverse
  40. dna
  41. drives
  42. drying
  43. dryness
  44. earth
  45. earthly
  46. enter
  47. environmental
  48. environments
  49. erroneous
  50. evidence
  51. evolution
  52. evolved
  53. exist
  54. exposure
  55. extraordinary
  56. extraterrestrial
  57. extreme
  58. fact
  59. fill
  60. find
  61. firmly
  62. forests
  63. forming
  64. fresh
  65. frozen
  66. fun
  67. functional
  68. fusing
  69. generate
  70. greek
  71. gummy
  72. hardy
  73. head
  74. heated
  75. high
  76. highest
  77. hospitable
  78. hottest
  79. hours
  80. human
  81. ice
  82. including
  83. knowledge
  84. leaving
  85. led
  86. legs
  87. levels
  88. lichen
  89. life
  90. limits
  91. live
  92. locked
  93. lost
  94. matrix
  95. meaning
  96. membranes
  97. metabolism
  98. microscope
  99. millimeter
  100. molecules
  101. moss
  102. mountain
  103. occur
  104. ordinary
  105. organism
  106. organisms
  107. origin
  108. outer
  109. parks
  110. patience
  111. peaks
  112. place
  113. places
  114. planets
  115. plants
  116. point
  117. position
  118. process
  119. prolonged
  120. proteins
  121. pulling
  122. radiation
  123. rainforests
  124. reactions
  125. rehydrated
  126. replace
  127. requires
  128. resilient
  129. restriction
  130. returns
  131. rise
  132. safeguard
  133. scarce
  134. scientific
  135. scientists
  136. sea
  137. sensitive
  138. sheets
  139. space
  140. special
  141. species
  142. speculation
  143. stabilize
  144. start
  145. state
  146. stop
  147. stresses
  148. studying
  149. survive
  150. synthesize
  151. tardigrade
  152. tardigrades
  153. technique
  154. thought
  155. time
  156. tolerate
  157. toughest
  158. trapped
  159. tun
  160. undamaged
  161. understand
  162. unfolding
  163. vaccines
  164. vacuum
  165. wait
  166. water
  167. withstand
  168. yards