Young Explorers · ages 7–11
The water bear
Young Explorers · The water bear
Next: Who holds the birds up? (children) →الْحَيُّ
al-Ḥayy · The Ever-Living
Somewhere in a patch of damp moss lives one of the toughest animals in the world. It might even be in your garden. It is so small you would need a microscope to see it. It has eight stubby legs, little claws, and it waddles about like a tiny bear.
Its name is the tardigrade. Most people call it the water bear.
Water bears are famous for surviving almost anything. When their puddle dries up, they pull in their legs. They curl up into a dry little barrel and go very, very still. They hardly use any energy at all. They can stay like that for years.
Scientists have frozen them. They have heated them. Once, they even sent water bears into space, outside a spacecraft, for ten days. When they came back to Earth, some of them woke up and walked about.
What a tough little creature. But here is the thing. Even the water bear needs something. To wake up, it needs a drop of water. Without water, it cannot come back to life. And one day, even the toughest water bear grows old and dies.
Every living thing is like this. A tree needs sunlight. A fish needs water. You need food, and air, and sleep. If you stayed awake for too long, you would get very muddled and grumpy. All living things need help to keep living, and none of them lives for ever.
Muslims have a Name for God that is about life. It is al-Ḥayy, the Ever-Living. It means God is alive in a way that nothing else is. He did not start living one day, and He will never stop. He does not need food, or water, or sleep. Nothing keeps Him alive. He is the One who gives life to everything else.
Muslims know one verse of the Qur’an by heart more than almost any other. It is called the Verse of the Throne. It says: “God: there is no god but Him, the Ever-Living, the One who keeps everything going. Neither tiredness nor sleep comes over Him.”
Jewish people sing a Psalm that says: “He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.”
Christians sing an old prayer, the Trisagion: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” Immortal means never dying.
So tonight, when you go to sleep, you can sleep well. Someone is awake who never gets tired.
Wonder with us
Even the toughest animal needs water to wake up. What do you need to keep you going each day?
Go on a walk in a garden or park. Collect a few things: a leaf, a stone, a twig, a shell, a feather. Sort them into piles: alive, once alive, never alive. Talk about it: what does every living thing need? Wash your hands afterwards, and leave any living creatures where you found them.
Watch together
Meet the tardigrade, the tiny water bear that can survive almost anything.
For grown-ups
Al-Ḥayy is in the Qur’an at 2:255 (Āyat al-Kursī, the Throne Verse), 3:2 and 25:58; the verse is in brief. The Jewish line is Psalm 121:4 (JPS 1917). The Christian line is the Trisagion, sung in Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican liturgies. In 2007 tardigrades were exposed to open space for ten days on the FOTON-M3 mission, and some survived and later reproduced (Jönsson and others, Current Biology, 2008). They survive drying out by forming a ’tun’, a state in which metabolism almost stops. We say what science shows and what scripture says, and let children wonder; we do not claim that one proves the other. A question to share: who looks after you while you sleep?
Watch more: The water bear
6 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.
Meet the tardigrade, the toughest animal on Earth - Thomas Boothby
TED-Ed · 4 min
Tardigrades Have Superpowers
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · 1 min
A one-minute look at the water bear's superpowers.
Tardigrades Have Super Cute "Eyes"
Journey to the Microcosmos · 1 min
Water bears under the microscope, with their tiny eyes.
Tardigrades Are Just Barely Microscopic
Journey to the Microcosmos · 1 min
Water bears are only just big enough to see.
Tardigrades: Surviving Space, -273°C and 30 Years Without Food
Animalogic · 8 min
How water bears survive cold, space and years without food.
Tardigrades Are Not Immortal!
Journey to the Microcosmos · 1 min
Water bears are amazingly tough, but they are not immortal.