"A naturalist is considered someone who prefers to hang
around without clothes." You're on
to me, Johnny Bonehead.
I'm Mike Shaw here with Motherboard, and we're here to
respond to the video First Animal to Survive in Space.
We were really floored by all the comments--
20,000 and growing.
And keep those comments coming, we do appreciate it.
I'm very grateful for the response.
And now let's get to some of your questions and comments.
"This stuff ain't new.
I saw a special on these things four years ago on
Discovery Channel.
Why these just coming to light?" TJtheEditor.
Well, we're just adding to the discussion.
People want to hear about tardigrades, they want to hear
about space.
And any time you talk about this type of topic, it spurs
interest because we all want to know how we got here.
So let me talk about some of the science versus religion
comments, I think that might be interesting.
Jubba explains that the purpose "of life is to
propagate itself." Hm, there's an idea.
And chickenfingers123, he clarifies entropy theory
verses the biblical age of the earth.
For me, there's really only one question about the
universe and its origins, and that is why is
there anything at all?
In other words, why is there something rather than nothing?
And by nothing, I don't mean vacuum, or space--
I mean nothing.
So just think about that for a second, let it sink in.
There is something--
there's matter, there's us, there's conversation, there's
stars and galaxies.
Why is there something rather than nothing at all?
All of the great religions, they all at least attempt to
tell us why there is something.
Religion tells us why, science tells us how.
"The dangerous tests on these animals disgusts me.
Tardigrades need rights, too." And that was
answered "I know, right?
Maybe tardigrades don't want to be subjected to extreme
temperatures and being tossed in space!"
You know what?
You're onto something here.
I don't think they want that at all, no.
I can't tell you what they do want, but
they don't want that.
Now, just keep one thing in mind, that tardigrades go into
kind of a suspended animation called cryptobiosis, and they
probably don't feel a thing.
So they don't care whether they're being subjected to
x-rays and vacuum and radiation.
To them, it's just like another hot day.
Here's a good one.
"If students consistently come late to class, it will
detrimentally affect their tardy grade."
Love that, love that.
One million monologues, you have a good sense of humor.
And by the way, I used to be in the hot dog business, but I
didn't relish it.
One of the questions was "Why talk about
tardigrades from space?
Evidence shows that they're related to earth creatures."
That's from Philip Hedden.
That's a great question, because that's very true.
Most of the evidence, especially DNA evidence which
we have now and we didn't have in the past, shows that
they're either related to Arthropods, Nematodes, which
are those little round worms.
Arthropods would be ticks and water
mites, little tiny creatures.
So they probably are related to
creatures that are on earth.
So the question is, again, did tardigrades come from space?
If there was a fragment of DNA that arrived here on a comet
or a meteor and that evolved into all life, including
tardigrades, then yeah, tardigrades came from space.
So that's one way to look at it.
OK, one nice comment which, I don't know how it was meant,
but I know how I took it.
Danielvincentkelley made a rather long comment.
And at the end he said "Dude should have a job packing
vans."
Well, I don't know if he meant that to be insulting or not.
If he was insulting me, I'm not insulted.
I think probably he might have been insulting
people who pack bags.
And this is a really good comment that hits home.
Because I think, again, it comes back to acceptance.
And whatever we do in jobs or in our life, if we can accept
it we'll find that there's a lot more happiness involved.
And it really doesn't matter what you do when you're in a
state of acceptance.
That just about wraps it up in terms of responding to most of
the comments that I could.
And I would just like to say that I really appreciate the
feedback and the interaction.
I just want to thank you again, all of you, for that.
And I look forward to seeing you again sometime.