Tardigrades have significantly bolstered their IMDb profiles over the past year.  With appearances in Star Trek: Discovery and South Park, the adorable  micro-animals are having a moment.

The word tardigrade means slow walker. They are also known as water bears or–much to my delight–moss piglets.  Unlike the giant creature on Star Trek’s Discovery, here on Earth these 8-legged creatures are nearly microscopic, rarely growing bigger than 1mm (about the thickness of a credit card).  They can survive in any environment, even apparently a Japanese parking lot, but they prefer to live at the bottom of lakes.

When stressed, tardigrades can enter a state called cryptobiosis where they curl up into  a ball called a tun and drastically reduce their metabolism (almost like hibernation). This ability allows tardigrades to survive extremes of temperature and moisture, and makes them nearly indestructible.  Tardigrades can even survive the vacuum of outer space (one thing Star Trek got right).  Upon arriving in a suitable environment, a balled-up, tunned tardigrade can rehydrate and come back to its plumped up, squishy state within hours.

Even more fascinating is the fact that anyone can have pet tardigrades.  Because they live almost everywhere, it is relatively easy to find them.  All you need to do is take a piece of moss from the ground or lichen off of a tree, soak it in a dish of spring water for 12-24 hours, and shake it out to release the tardigrades. They eat algae in the water, so you can easily supplement the water with additional moss to keep them happily squishy and un-tunned.

However, since tardigrades are so small, they are both hard to see and easy to lose. Without a microscope, you might as well be farming dirty water. But with even a simple microscope, raising tardigrades can be a super cool hobby or an award-winning science fair project.

Want to know more about tardigrades?
Ted-Ed (Youtube)
 IFL Science
Live Science
Wired