A dose of about 5 grays is enough to kill a human. Deinococcus radiodurans withstands around 5,000 with no loss of viability. The radiation still shatters its DNA into hundreds of pieces, but the microbe keeps several copies of its genome and repair systems that stitch everything back together within hours. Microbiologists nicknamed it 'Conan the Bacterium'.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.