This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
In the comic series Watchmen, physicist Jon Osterman is blown apart in a science experiment gone awry. But his “consciousness” is able to pull his body
back together atom by atom, becoming the radiating, blue-skinned Dr Manhattan. It took him months to reform, and in that time I wonder if he learned that trick from a tiny pond animal. For few creatures in fiction, and even fewer in real life, are capable of surviving being ripped to bits. But for hydras, it is an every day affair.
back together atom by atom, becoming the radiating, blue-skinned Dr Manhattan. It took him months to reform, and in that time I wonder if he learned that trick from a tiny pond animal. For few creatures in fiction, and even fewer in real life, are capable of surviving being ripped to bits. But for hydras, it is an every day affair.
Hydras are tiny freshwater animals, with column-shaped bodies ringed at the top with tentacles around a mouth. Like little freshwater sea anemones, hydras spend much of their time with tentacles extended, waiting for prey to pass. Not exactly comic book material. But to see their true power, all you have to is blend a Hydra to hamburger meat and swirl the puree to the bottom of a bowl.
, all you have to is blend a Hydra to hamburger meat and swirl the puree to the bottom of a bowl.
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