Water Bears

Water bears have lived on Earth since the days of the dinosaurs, and while the giant lizards died out, they persevered. They had plenty of time to adapt to this world: these microscopic survivalists can withstand the Dantean heat of volcanoes and the bitter cold of the Arctic, long periods of drought hardly affect them, and they have even survived the vacuum of space unscathed. Instead of indulging in science fiction fantasies, however, Jan Wilm's literary essay explores the more than a thousand species of the ‘little water bear,’ as it was once affectionately called, in a post-humanist sense: Do these tiny creatures have a sense of time? And what might it mean to be a tardigrade?

From the tiny to the big picture, the essay recounts the biological origins and diverse portrayal of tardigrades in pop culture. And it traces the contact between humans and tardigrades to date in order to take an unusual look at what constitutes life on Earth.