I am the Tardigrade

Here I am on-parade

As the Creator made

I am alive

When all the tricks are played

When all the money’s made

After the cannonade

I will survive.

The Tardigrade, or Water Bear, is a charming little creature with a world-class reputation. It even got a BBC program to itself not so very long ago. It is also the first inhabitant of planet Earth to establish a permanent colony on another celestial body – though that’s a claim which will need verification in a decade or two. But, unlike the conjectured life on Mars, we’ll know exactly where to look!

Now the not-so-humble tardigrade has scored another world record: the first animal to be quantum-entangled with a qubit. Eat your heart out, Schrödinger’s Cat!

But what Spookie the Cat would like to know is: what’s happened to the poor tardigrade? Is it alive or dead – or both?