by Elio — Re­cently, tardi­grades or wa­ter bears made the news be­cause they had been loaded on a space cap­sule headed for the moon. Alas, the space­craft crashed on its way down and the fate of the tiny pas­sen­gers is un­known. This gives us a rea­son for re­vis­it­ing these fas­ci­nat­ing crea­tures and to bring the topic up to date.