In the Three-Body Problem books, Trisolarans, a type of alien, can dehydrate (脱水) their bodies. They can then ride out terrible environments and come back to life again hundreds of years later. Is it possible that humans could be like that as well?
Scientists have now made a new discovery by studying water bears. These microscopic organisms can live without water for decades, according to University of Tokyo biologist Takekazu Kunieda.
When water bears find themselves somewhere without water, they go into a form called a tun. In this form, there are no signs of life, and they can survive pretty much anything. Deep freezing, volcanic fire, the dark space… these tiny water bears just sleep it off and wake up once it's safe again, said Science Alert.
But how do these little eight-legged water bears live without water? Scientists may be onto the answer now.
"It's thought that as water leaves a cell (细胞), some kind of protein must help the cell keep its strength to avoid breaking apart," said Kunieda. Now scientists have found proteins special to water bears. The proteins protect their cells against dehydration.
Scientists also put those proteins into human cells. They found these proteins can strengthen the human cell so that it won't become smaller in size when losing water, said Science Alert.
With experiments using human cells showing successful results, Trisolarans might one day come to be a reality.
