Nematodes
Made famous to kids everywhere by Spongebob Squarepants, nematodes are as miniscule as they are abundant. Nathan Cobb, an early nematologist, perhaps put it best in his 1915 work, Nematodes and their Relationships: “If all the matter in the universe except the nematodes were swept away, our world would still be dimly recognisable… we should find its mountains, hills, vales, rivers, lakes, and oceans represented by a film of nematodes.” Delightful!
Nematodes, it turns out, can survive big doses of gamma radiation. (Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about being an extremophile is that scientists will try rapturously to find your breaking point.) With nematodes, specifically C. elegans, their ability to handle radiation exposure has to do with the radioactive isotope at play. Some radiation, though, can cause reproductive problems in the wriggly little nematodes (it can prevent them from producing sperm cells), so perhaps they wouldn’t win in an ultimate showdown in a nuclear world.
