Ok. How about a tiny spacesuit to protect insects in a vacuum?

[Aethon]

http://www.livescience.com/49598-insects-spacesuits-microscopes-protection.html


TL;DR

To avoid electron scatter, the objective in an electron microscope must be in a vacuum. For the first time scientists have imaged a living organism by coating insects in a thin flexible membrane they're calling a nano suit.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Aethon

[sal_vager]

I suspect that this kills the insect...

Very interesting video, seeing insects that close really shows how different they are from us.

Edited January 29, 2015 by sal_vager

[Aethon]

Hmm. You're link isn't working for me Sal though it may be on my end. I'm having some connection problems.

From the article:

"The resulting nanosuits were hard on the outside and soft on the inside, and could repair themselves if the insects' movement broke the surfaces. The researchers were able to take detailed images of the insects without harming the creatures, Hariyama said, adding that almost all of the insects in the study survived the imaging.

In ongoing work, Hariyama and his team plan to analyze the DNA of the insects after the imaging, to see if the nanosuits caused any lasting health issues."

Awww. So yeah, that DNA test is going to involve some pretty fatal grinding.

[LordFerret]

We'll be sending several billion such ants, trained, in little nano spacesuits, to terraform Mars.

[Panzerbeard]

We'll be sending several billion such ants, trained, in little nano spacesuits, to terraform Mars.

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords

That can only end well.

[Sirrobert]

Yup, can't see how that could go wrong

[Tommygun]

It's a good start, but we need to make them bigger if you want any useful work out of them:

[ZedNova]

Yup, can't see how that could go wrong

Come on you ants, you wanna live forever?!?

Err, maybe that wasn't it.

[Louella]

Come on you ants, you wanna live forever?!?

Err, maybe that wasn't it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/ ?

[kerbiloid]

True insects not afraid of vacuum

http://lexx.wikia.com/wiki/Giga_Shadow

http://lexx.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lexx

Edited January 29, 2015 by kerbiloid

[rtxoff]

Insects the first spacefaring species ?

[Scotius]

Insects the first spacefaring species ?

That honor belongs to dogs. Or microbes, if you believe in panspemia.

[Ralathon]

That honor belongs to dogs. Or microbes, if you believe in panspemia.

Even if you don't believe in panspermia, there were plenty of microbes stuck to Sputnik.

[Argylas]

I suspect that this kills the insect...

"The researchers were able to take detailed images of the insects without harming the creatures, Hariyama said, adding that almost all of the insects in the study survived the imaging."

It seems insects can survive without breathing for as long as it takes to image them with this technique. Possibly the researchers remove the coating from the specimens afterwards...

[lajoswinkler]

Electron microscopy requires specially prepared material and that usually considers heavy metal ion binding to the object you want to watch. It's always dead material and thus it appearance is not the same.

These critters wouldn't explode, but they will suffocate in vacuum. They are doomed. Their breathing holes are clogged and it's a matter of short time before they kick the bucket.

But it's nice to see something alive under electron beam for change.

[moogoob]

Bugs in space - bugs on mars...

Sandkings?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667945/

EDIT: interestingly, based on a novel written by George RR Martin.

[problemecium]

Okay, this is weird. Forgive me for temporarily derailing the thread just for a minute, but did anyone see a post from me about Terra Formars?

I thought I made one, but I can't see it, so either it was removed by a mod (and I wasn't informed) or the forum derped, or I did something dumb unwittingly and maybe didn't press "submit".

If anyone knows what happened, please holler, otherwise don't mind me. xP

[Ikaneko]

It's a good start, but we need to make them bigger if you want any useful work out of them:

That feeling when...

What is this?? FOX news!?

Next headline: Are the jihadist muslamists training genetically engineered crabs to suicide bomb?

I hear they're from Mexico. Must TIGHTEN BORDERS!!!

[Lohan2008]

1:08 HORRIBLE FREEDOM !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPGDWD_oLE

[lajoswinkler]

Okay, this is weird. Forgive me for temporarily derailing the thread just for a minute, but did anyone see a post from me about Terra Formars?

I thought I made one, but I can't see it, so either it was removed by a mod (and I wasn't informed) or the forum derped, or I did something dumb unwittingly and maybe didn't press "submit".

If anyone knows what happened, please holler, otherwise don't mind me. xP

I saw it yesterday.

[tutrakan4e]

No more Terraformars! Nope!