This program is sponsored by the Covley Foundation based in Los Angeles, California.

The Covley Foundation is dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity.

I'm Alan Alder, and this is Clear In Vivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

Tartegrades have been found on every continent, including Antarctica.

You find them at the bottom of the ocean.

They've been found at the tops of the Himalayas.

You'll find them in very dry places, like deserts, but also in wet places.

But despite being found in all these kind of crazy remote, distant lands, if you have

a microscope and you go in your backyard and pick up some moss and look at it, you would

probably find some Tartegrades just in your backyard as well.

So they're really quite cosmopolitan.

That's Thomas Boothby.

He's talking about one of my favorite animals, Tartegrades.

And yet, their animals, despite the fact that they're microscopic.

They're not only found in your backyard, they're also nature's ultimate survivalists.

And they have lessons for us that may help make vaccines more available and help crops,

flourish even on a warming planet, and help astronauts survive in space.

This is really going to be a treat for me.

I hope that you treat for everybody else as it is for me because you study what is fast

becoming my favorite animal in the world.

More even than octopuses, which are cuddly, slimy things.

I really like them.

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