This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Lee Billings.

You got a minute?

Forget cockroaches.

Forget Superman.

Forget any other tough-as-nails creatures you've ever heard of.

The most indestructible multicellular organisms on earth are undoubtedly tardigrades,

microscopic eight-legged aquatic invertebrates also known as water bears. These we beasties can withstand

severe dehydration extreme temperatures and pressures several days in Earth orbit exposed

to the vacuum of space,

and whopping doses of radiation that would kill most anything else.

And being Earthlings, there's no reason to think they'd be vulnerable to kryptonite.

Scientists are beginning to understand the genetic basis of Tardigrades death-defying superpowers,

and what their learning may have profound implications for human health.

The genome for a species of Tardigrade was first sequenced last year. The analysis suggested that about one-sixth of the DNA was

one-sixth of the DNA was imported from notoriously hard-to-kill bacteria.

But that conclusion was soon disputed, with all that bacterial DNA blamed on laboratory contamination.

Now a new genome has been published of an exceptionally hardy tartagreed species, and it finds that almost all of the DNA is homegrown and chock full of sequences

responsible for cellular protection and repair.

The study is in the journal Nature Communications.

In particular, the researchers discovered the gene for a protein

apparently unique to water bears that shields their DNA from radiation damage.

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