Squiggle finally learns what "tardigrades" (or "waterbears") actually are:

"Tardigrade!" shouted Ollie.

"What now?" asked Squiggle, a little startled by the way a loud, unfamiliar word had shattered the silence of a lazy Sunday afternoon.

"That's the word of that thing that one of Mr. Li's students is doing something on for her science fair project...look, there's a book on tardigrades on his desktop, on the short pile."


Kids & Teachers TARDIGRADE Science Project Book: How to Find Tardigrades and Observe Them through a Microscope by Michael Shaw (you can find it here at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Teachers-TARDIGRADE-Science-Project-ebook/dp/B009D7VHXK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407356021&sr=1-1&keywords=tardigrade).

Squiggle excitedly hopped off the bookshelf--well, hopped as only a small, not very thin and not very coordinated worm can hop--and shimmied on up to the computer's keyboard. She had to know what these "tardigrade" critters were, what they looked like, and why the fuss. She did a search and came up with this site:



http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/19/5-reasons-why-the-tardigrade-is-natures-toughest-animal/

And after that, she even found a plushy doll version of the so-homely-cute waterbears:

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/waterbear.html