What we did, when
A write-up of each working session, with pictures along the way. For how any one piece works, see its own page: X-ray, muscles, walking, blocks, genomics.
6 October 2026 · Five preprints, two corrections, and four answers that changed on reading the sourceWhen a tardigrade builds its synapses; a gene cluster three annotations missed; the forty-year brain argument; and a 1982 paper that settled a table read backwards.
The first week · eight days, 291 commits, three preprintsA retrospective: what was built, the three things we got wrong and what each taught, and the claim the week actually supports — that most of this came from data that was already public.
27 September 2026 · The day the tardigrade joined the circusA measurement of how much the body bends, applied once a second instead of over a whole walk; the check that should have caught it and didn't; and the animal put back, side by side.
22 September 2026 · Two preprints, two corrections, and an idea that turned out to be fourteen years oldWhere a nucleus sits inside its own cell and what that costs a model; the answer to "when does condensin II activate" (it doesn't); a confound test that tested nothing; and a 2012 paper that had our idea first.
21 September 2026 · The day we checked our own numbersA published percentage that was wrong and why; 88% of this site that no crawler could reach; evidence the site was deleting on its way out; two prior-art searches that cost a headline each and one that handed back three times the data.
20 September 2026 · A nerve cord measured, and an embryo that runs two animalsThe four trunk ganglia measured for the first time; nearly half the animal may be nerve; an embryo engine that fills its egg and runs a nematode too; preprint v4.
19 September 2026 · A preprint, a DNA tree, and a drawing for every genusThe condensin II preprint published and its clasp modelled on the ring; a drawing or picture for 94 genera; a DNA tree of 412 species against the official names; where research happens.
18 September 2026, evening · It hatched, and the site grew to every tardigradeThe embryo hatches; cells get a cytoskeleton, and four worm cells settle into their real rhomboid; a tree of all 1,550 species with a page each; 415 credited figures; the brain, cryptobiosis and extremes.
18 September 2026 · Muscles, and an embryo to hatchingFifty leg muscles per side fitted into the glass tardigrade; everything made downloadable; the embryo timed against seven sources and grown to hatching; Levin 2016's clock set right.
17–18 September 2026 · From label files to a walking glass animalNaming unlabelled organs, tracing the body, registering the head scan, walking, and the Minecraft builds.