[dekhn]

Note that they describe using a tun, which is a form of tardigrade which has evacuated pretty much all water and is metabolically inert. These forms can survive thousands of years of harsh conditions and have effectively no chemical activity. None of this work would translate beyond organisms that enter such states.

I won't really comment on whether the authors did what they said, except to point out that academics are highly incentivized to make their work sound both more "significant" (that is, important beyond what they did in their lab) and "impressive" (that is, a greater technical achievement than what they did in their lab).

[thisrod]

The biology is even more interesting than I thought. These things have brains, which shut down, then reboot when they rehydrate. Wow!