HBM147: Chasing Tardigrades

May 19, 2021·21 min·1 clip

After days of searching, Chloé spots a tardigrade wiggling its legs like a tiny animal.

Here Be Monsters follows two parallel threads: an interview with Chloe Savard, a microbiology student in Montreal, and host Jeff Entman's personal audio diary as he learns microscopy and hunts for his first tardigrade. Savard describes tardigrades as tiny animals with eight legs, eyes, a brain, muscles, and a digestive system, composed of about a thousand cells. She explains the basic method for finding them: collect moss from sidewalk cracks, rocks, or trees, soak it in water overnight, and check under a microscope the next day. Dormant tardigrades rehydrate and come back to life. Savard originally studied drums and wanted to be a touring rock star. She has Crohn's disease, and the demands of music school caused severe weight loss and frequent hospitalizations. She switched to science as a practical backup, but found that microscopy gave her a sense of meaning that music had not. She still plays percussion in a reggae band. She describes the experience of looking through a microscope as deeply calming, comparing it to viewing art in a museum: understanding what you are looking at is not required to find it beautiful. Entman's diary entries document his learning process. He describes finding a dead mite-like creature being swarmed by tiny organisms, watching a nematode worm twist itself into shapes resembling infinity signs, treble clefs, and ampersands while making almost no forward progress, and going through dozens of slides without finding a tardigrade. When he finally spots one, he describes the unmistakable shape: an oval body with eight wiggling legs and tiny black eyes, moving like any other animal. Savard reflects on showing her microscopy videos to friends who did not understand her excitement. She started an Instagram account called Tardibabe, posting personal, less polished content compared to typical science accounts. She says that microscopy helped her understand her relationship with the universe in a way similar to how others use religion, finding meaning in small things that translates to larger ones. Entman notes he bought his microscope at a Goodwill online auction for about sixty dollars and took photos by holding his phone up to the lens. He posts amateur photos on the show's website. The episode is interspersed with sound design that evokes the quiet focus of a microscopy session. A short closing segment features a listener who hid cubic zirconia gems and the podcast's phone number inside a copy of The Fountainhead behind a water shutoff panel in their new house, in case someone finds it years later.

As heard by us

A tiny creature hunt that becomes a quiet case for paying attention.

HBM147: Chasing Tardigrades turns a sidewalk crack into a lesson in attention. It moves through the practical work of finding moss, soaking it, waiting for dormant tardigrades to wake, and learning that recognition comes quicker after a few tries.

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A tiny creature hunt that turns into a quiet case for paying attention.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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