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Tardigrades are near-indestructible, and almost perfect organisms, from an evolutional standpoint.

One of their greatest abilities is "hibernation". It basically means, that when the conditions aren't good enough for them, they use their special power, the anhydrobiosis and start to produce a molecule in their cells, that traps the cell's components in a suspended state, preventing damage to them.

While tardigrades possess a "brain", I'm unsure, whether their abilities could be transferred (read: genetically engineered) to humans because:

  • Humans possess way more complex brains.
  • I don't know if this process can happen fast enough to preserve a dying (bleeding out) person's brain, for later extraction (of what remains of the body).

Would it be possible for humans to use this tardigrade superpower successfully?

Mephistopheles
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  • I think you can rephrase your question to make it more clear. I don't understand 1) are you asking if is possible to preserve a brain or a complete individual? 2) as far as I can see tardigrades do not withstand chopping, why are you asking to extract the brain? – L.Dutch Jul 17 '17 at 12:11
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    I'm sorry to be a bit pedantic, but currently this reads like an article on cracked.com or similar "media". Most organisms living today are "almost perfect from an evolutional standpoint". And not one of them has a "super power" that can be given to some other species. Most species do what they are supposed to do. A human rarely encounters a situation where hibernation would be useful. And of course hibernation for humans is possible, it just can't be given to them by some other animal. How does one accomplish this? If we would know, nobody would die anymore. – Raditz_35 Jul 17 '17 at 12:13
  • PS: Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_coma – Raditz_35 Jul 17 '17 at 12:15

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Essentially you would need to reconstruct human biology, certainly at the cellular level right down to rewriting our genome, possibly making gross morphological changes to anatomy, to become like that of the Tardigrada. It's not a matter of 'siphoning off' some mythical super-power and transferring it into humans.

The most probable outcome for modified humans would be they could hibernate in highly stressful conditions. Good for long-range spaceflight or waiting out getting lost in the wilderness.

Basically nobody knows whether hibernating like a tardigrade would preserve or protect a dying human being or their brain. The same with the speed with which this process would act. The problem is you asking for the unknowable. The only way to find out would be to genetically re-engineer humans with a tardigrade biology. Until we do that, we won't and don't know.

a4android
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