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kazinator on March 13, 2015 | parent | context | favorite | on: Tardigrades are so tough, they can survive outer s...

Can someone explain why something up to 1.5mm long can "can only be seen with a microscope?" That would make sense if the other dimensions were small. But from the pictures, it appears that this is not the case; tardigrades are approximately oval shaped, not much narrower than they are long. I have a circuit board on my desk here where some surface-mount components are about millimeter-something long, and less than a mm wide. I can plainly see them.

gnud on March 13, 2015 | [–]

The Almighty Wiki says 'Usually, tardigrades are about 0.5 mm (0.020 in) long when they are fully grown'.

Following the reference, we find that they're almost translucent, but can be seen in the right light [1].

1: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2011/5/tardigrad...

frozenport on March 13, 2015 | [–]

They are also transparent, and benefit from a phase sensitive imaging techniques, or dark field.

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