Tardigrades are Hardy little feckers!
They use a biological gel to stop the cell deteriorating when they're under water stress, There might be more to it but this is at least one of the components of their hardiness. The molecule they use destroys neurons (they only have about 200) so the process will have little application (interplanetary stasis) in higher life forms.
Here's something else: Euglenids.
'It is neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. It's not even a bacterium or fungi.
It's called a Euglenid – and it's a weird fusion of a bunch of different living things.
Euglenids are a group of unicellular eukaryotes that gain energy through both photosynthesis, like a plant, and through consuming other beings, like an animal.
These aquatic organisms split off from other eukaryotes roughly a billion years ago, and yet their fossil record for all that time on Earth is scarce.
...
Because here's the other wacky thing about Euglenids. In times of stress, these organisms wrap themselves up in a protective cyst, which looks sort of like a three-dimensional thumbprint, and enter a
dormant state.
...
"Perhaps related to their capabilities to encyst, these organisms have endured and survived every major extinction on the planet,"
suggests Van de Schootbrugge
"Unlike the behemoths that were done in by volcanoes and asteroids, these tiny creatures have weathered it all."'
Bizarre Fossils Are Neither Plant Nor Animal, But a 'Weird Fusion' of Life - Science Alert
Who knows? Maybe some day we'll talk about Euglenids like we talk about the IFR and nanoliposomes today.
www.bbc.co.uk
www.zerohedge.com
