CNN —Tardigrades, also known as water bears, commonly survive in some of Earth’s most challenging environments. Under stress in extreme cold or other harsh environmental conditions, tardigrades’ bodies produce unstable free radicals of oxygen and an unpaired electron, aka a reactive oxygen species that can wreak havoc on the body’s proteins and DNA if they overaccumulate. The survival mechanism kicks off when cysteines, one of the amino acids that forms proteins in the body, come into contact with these oxygen free radicals and becomes oxidized, the researchers found. The free radicals become, so to speak, the hammer used to smash the glass on a fire alarm. “We came up with this idea (that) maybe it’s those species that are actually signaling to the tardigrades to enter their tun state,” she said.

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Persons: CNN — Tardigrades, Amanda L, cysteines, ” Smythers, Smythers, Amanda Smythers Smythers, William R, Miller, ” Miller, Jenna Schnuer Organizations: CNN, International Space Station, Dana, Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Getty, University of North, Chapel, Marshall University, Baker University Locations: ”, Boston, Antarctica, University of North Carolina, Huntington , West Virginia, Baldwin City , Kansas, Anchorage , Alaska