<![CDATA[io9: Hibernation]]> http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: Hibernation]]> http://io9.com/tag/hibernation http://io9.com/tag/hibernation <![CDATA[Your hibernation pod is ready]]> Imagine going to sleep for months at a time and then waking up just in time to land on Mars. Hibernation is second nature to bears and other mammals...but there's no reason humans can't do it too. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5857754&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[What will suspended animation really be like? A new study offers hints.]]> In early winter, brown bears find a comfy spot in a cave or burrow that's well-protected from the cold. Then they curl up, fall asleep, and don't awaken or eat for 5 to 7 months. It's called hibernation, and until now we weren't really sure what happened in bears' bodies during that time. How could they survive for half a year without food? Today, Science published the first comprehensive study of bear hibernation, which revealed that many of our assumptions about it were wrong. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5762826&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A 34,000 year old bacteria has come back from the dead and is breeding]]> Thirty-four millennia ago, some bacteria got trapped inside salt crystals in what is now Death Valley. These crystals were recently dug up and the bacteria freed from their hibernation...and then they started reproducing. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5736128&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Meet the Tardigrades: The Solar System's Most Extreme Survivors]]> There is an organism living on this planet who can travel through space without a suit. Cute, unassuming little invertebrates, these organisms are called tardigrades, or water bears, and usually spend their days crawling around on a piece of nice wet moss in a forest, or meandering through our vast oceans. They only grow to be about 1.5 millimeters long, but over 1,000 species of them inhabit the planet, and they all have a superpower unmatched by any other species on Earth. No now knows why, but tardigrades can withstand temperatures as cold as liquid nitrogen, radiation doses that would kill a human 100 times over, thrive in an outer-space-like vacuum, and survive without water for years. More »
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