01.11.2009.

 

This is a good occasion to look at some stats for the first five years of TN activity (i.e. 2004-2008):

• We noted 32 thousand hits. As can be seen from the graph below, the number of visits increased with each year (a slightly better result for 2007/2008 was due to a general increase in interest in tardigrades caused by the publications on the survival of tardigrades after the exposure to the outer space conditions).

• The total number of tardigrade and tardigrade-related papers published between 2004 and 2008 amounted to 248.

• The number of papers on Tardigrada did not vary much across the five years (blue bars in 2006 and 2007 represent the IX and X Symposia volumes, respectively):

• The most popular subjects of tardigrade papers were definitely taxonomy, biogeography/faunistics and ecology:

• Of all papers, 84% were dedicated entirely to Tardigrada and in the remaining 16% water bears were only a part of larger assays.

• As much as 93% were research papers whereas only 7% were reviews.

• Almost all papers were written in English (98%, the remaining 2% were published in German, Italian and Polish).

• 120 new taxa were described (117 new species and 3 new genera).

• Of all taxonomic papers, 90% described new taxa and 10% were devoted to redescriptions.

• Nearly a quarter of all papers were published in 'Zootaxa', making it the most popular journal for tardigradologists in the last five years.

• Currently the Newsletter consists of eleven sections encompassing 40 pages, whereas in the beginning there were only 6 sections with 13 pages.

• There are 48 tardigradology experts listed in our Directories, and almost 130 email addresses on our TN Mailing List.

• Of all listed papers only 42% were sent in by their authors (this includes the Symposia volumes sent in by their editors and papers published by us).

Once again we would like to thank you for your cooperation and support. We hope that the TN will survive another five years (and more!). Also, one of our wishes is that more of the TN users not only visit the website, but also send in their papers.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

PS
...and they said we wouldn't last... ;-)

06.10.2009.

 

That's all the details that are known for now, but keep checking the TN section devoted to the XII Symposium as it will be updated as new information flows in.

Sent in by: Paulo Fontoura

18.08.2009.

 

We'd like to thank Ralph O. Schill, Heinz-K Kohler, Hartmut Greven and Karin Hochberg for organising the Symposium! It's always hard work and cannot be underestimated, especially given how rarely the tardigrade meetings are held.

No decisions regarding the XII Symposium have been made yet, but as soon as we hear anything on the subject, we'll let you know via the TN Mailing List.

For now we'd like to invite you to have a look at the section of TN devoted to the XI Symposium. There're only two things missing there: the proceedings (for which we'll have to wait a bit) and your photographs. Thus, please choose some of your pictures, zip them, upload here and send us the download link. We will then put them all on our website.

Last, but not least - big thanks to Ralph who provided materials for the TN section devoted to the Tubingen Symposium! :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

26.07.2009.

 

We also updated the Symposia section with some information about the II Symposium, including the never-published-before group photo! :-D

Have fun in Germany and good luck with your talks and posters! :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk

26.05.2009.

 

15.04.2009.

 

For today only the X and the XI Symposia have their sites ready, but we'll be working backwards on all other meetings until we reach the I Symposium. Since we are not able to find all the information by ourselves, we'll be asking the organisers for their help. We hope the new section will not only be useful as a source of information on tardigrade papers and the history of tardigradology but that it'll also have some sentimental value :-)

We are grateful to all who already did and to those who will help us with building the Symposia section.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

22.03.2009.

 

10.03.2009.

 

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

08.03.2009.

 

01.03.2009.

 

28.02.2009.

 

Further information is available here.

Sent in by: E. F. Smets

09.02.2009.

 

12.01.2009.

 

03.01.2009.

 

We'd like to wish you all the best in 2009 both in professional and private life. We also thank you for all the greetings we received from you recently as well as for all the support we have been receiving throughout the year.

The last year was relatively quiet in our small tardigrade world, which was also reflected in a low amount of news published in the Newsletter. The only exception was the report on tardigrades in space which gained a lot of attention and publicity not only in the scientific community but also in popular science media.

Even though there have been only 43 papers published in 2008 so far (which is less than 70% compared to 2007) we noted as many as 11 thousand hits on our website (only 7.5 thousand in 2007), which suggests that Tardigrada Newsletter's popularity is slowly, but systematically growing, and that - of course - makes us very happy ;-)

Given that this August the XI International Symposium on Tardigrada is being held, you should expect much more activity on our website. Also, we'll be celebrating our 5th birthday in November and we plan to open a new section devoted entirely to tardigrade symposia.

We hope to see you all in Germany later this year! :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

25.10.2008.

 

01.04.2008.
 

The section 'Archives 2008' has been opened today. If you visited the Archives recently you may have noticed the new buttons that we put there to facilitate the navigation in the growing pile of references. Actually, we had to refurbish all the buttons in TN as they seemed to be a bit threadbare. Well, it shouldn't be that surprising since you've been clicking them quite a lot - our hit counter has shown nearly 16 000 visits...! :-)

OK, enough of showing off, lets get back to the references... The beginning of 2008 was quite good in the tardigrade paper publishing business: twenty-one papers were added to the Newsletter in the first three months of this year. Even though this number includes eight papers dated for 2007 that have been published with a delay, it is still a very nice number giving hopes for a very fruitful year in tardigrade research!

There were as many as 58 papers published in 2007 and despite the fact that 24 of them were published in the X International Symposium volume it is still an impressive result. The number of papers on tardigrades seems to increase slowly, but consistently with each year. There are 31 references listed in Archives 2004, 48 in 2005, 56 in 2006 and 59 in 2007...

Please let us know if we overlooked any references from 2007 and, of course, keep sending in references of your brand new papers! :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk

10.03.2008.
 

The Congress will be held in Copenhagen (Denmark), 17-21 August 2008. The deadline for abstract submission is the 01.05.2008. For detailed information on the meeting see the official website: www.ICIM-1.dk.

Sent in by: Diane Nelson

24.12.2007.
 

Thank you for all warm greetings we received from you recently as well as for all the support we receive throughout the year. We also wish you all the best in coming year 2008! :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

02.11.2007.
 

A month ago the first ever tardigrades that were sent into outer space returned to Earth and now they are going to be analysed. The coordinator of the project is Ingemar Jonsson of the Kristianstad University, Sweden. You can find out more about TARDIS on the project's official website.

Sent in by: Ingemar Jonsson

01.11.2007.
 

As usual, we would like to thank you for all the support and wishes you're sending to us. It's been three years that you've been with us.

Our hit counter shows nearly 12 000 visits and we plan to open a new section of the Newsletter soon. Thanks again, and we hope you'll keep enjoying Tardigrada Newsletter.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

07.07.2007.
 

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has announced that the tardigrade genome is going to be sequenced. Hypsibius dujardini (Doyere, 1840) was chosen as the first ever tardigrade species which genome will be described. The date and the lab where sequencing will be done is not known yet. You can find the project proposal here.

Sent in by: the Bob Goldstein Lab

30.06.2007.
 

We are glad to inform you that the Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Tardigrada are available on-line on the web site of the Journal of Limnology. The proceedings contain 24 scientific papers on tardigrade morphology, taxonomy, phylogeny, faunistics, biogeography, ecology and methodology. Traditionally, there's also a photograph of all Symposium participants.

The printed version will be available very soon.

Sent in by: Lorena Rebecchi & Giovanni Pilato

04.06.2007.
 

The summer has arrived and it's time for a small break. We're going to be away for nearly a month (conferences that need to be attended...) and the next Newsletter update will be in the very end of June. Don't worry, everything that you send us while we're away, will be published (just with a little delay).

Talking about conferences - it's been almost a year since we've seen you in Catania! Diane and Jack have recently added their photos to the X Symposium photo album. A good reason to refresh nice memories! :-)

Lots of sun,

Lukasz Michalczyk

01.04.2007.
 

The section 'Archives 2007' has been opened today. The first quarter of 2007 was extremely poor regarding tardigrade papers publishing: only five papers were added to the Newsletter in the first three months of 2007, including four dated for 2006. Hopefully, the rest of 2007 will be more productive, however it will be very hard to beat 2006, in which 55 papers were published! It's a nice number, even though it's overstated by the IX Symposium volume (15 references).

Please let us know if we overlooked any references from 2006 and, of course, keep sending your brand new papers as well! :-)

Cheers,

Lukasz Michalczyk

20.03.2007.
 

It's time for the annual stats summary. Two years ago we introduced the stats system which records the visits to the Tardigrada Newsletter. During the last 365 days we noted 6400 hits which gives 17.5 visits per day on average. This is nearly 8 times more than in the last stats year (837 hits)! Thank you for visiting the web and we hope that the Newsletter will become even more popular in the next stats year.

Lukasz Michalczyk

07.01.2007.
 

Following a suggestion of one of our users, we have put the date of the last update in the upper part of the most frequently updated pages.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

19.12.2006.
 

Dear All!

We would like to wish you all the best in the New Year!!! This is the last update in the Old Year, but the next one will be in the very beginning of 2007.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

01.11.2006.
 

Dear All!

Tardigrada Newsletter is two years old! :-)  We are very happy to inform you that with each month we note a higher number of hits, which means that the website is more and more popular. For example, during October 2005 only 77 people visited the Newsletter, while during October 2006 we noted nearly ten times more hits (732).

On the occasion of the second birthday we have added three new sections to the Newsletter and also enriched the graphics by adding six new background tardigrade photographs.

When we started the Newsletter it was thought to be a website mainly for professional tardigradologists, but now we know that the website is visited also by people from outside of our water bear community. For them we created a little section 'Tardigrades' which shortly explains what water bears actually are.

The second of the new extensions is the section of 'Mailing lists'.

Finally, in the third of the new sections ('Goodies') you will find the Newsletter banners and wallpapers.

As always, we are open to your suggestions and offers of cooperation. We would also like to thank you for all the support and interest you have shown during these first two years and we hope that the Newsletter will get much older than that... :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk

05.09.2006.
 

!!! NEW MAILING LIST !!!
 

Lukasz Michalczyk

31.08.2006.
 

"Il Phylum Tardigrada" in English

For a number of years Hartmut Greven and Clark Beasley have discussed having the English translation of Ramazzotti & Maucci’s monograph ("Il Phylum Tardigrada" 1983) published.  They are especially concerned that the volume be available to new workers in the future. Having it published by an institution would establish a relatively permanent source for new workers after some of us have retired, and also facilitate copies being deposited in libraries.  The problems have been resolved and it is possible to publish the monograph as a supplement to ACTA BIOLOGICA BENRODIS. Only the species descriptions section of the monograph would be included; the general biology section in the first part of the monograph is badly out of date and does not seem to warrant publishing. 

08.08.2006.
 

The official website of the 11th International Symposium on Tardigrada that is going to be held in Germany in 2009 has been launched. The link to the website is available in the section links. The Symposium will focus on the taxonomy, physiology, genetics and biochemistry of tardigrades.

Lukasz Michalczyk

05.08.2006.
 

Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Tardigrada held in St. Petersburg, Florida in August of 2003 are available for purchase.

The cost is $50.00 USD for the volume and $10.00 USD for shipping.  Total cost is $60.00 USD.  Shipping for orders with multiple copies can be combined.

For more information please contact Dr. Brent Nichols.

Sent in by: Brent Nichols

The 10th International Symposium on Tardigrada is over. It was a very nice Symposium and we are glad we could meet many of you in beautiful and hot Catania. We hope to meet you all again in Germany, in 2009 at the 11th Symposium! :-)

For those of who were taking pictures at the Symposium and would like to share them with others we set up a special web photo album. We have already put some of our photos there. If you would like to do the same, please email me for the details/instructions on how to put your photos online. The photo album is open, which means that anyone can view (and also download) the pics and videos (yes, you can publish short movies too). This way not only the Symposium participants will be able to exchange their photos but also guys that couldn't be with us in Italy will have a chance to see what all the fuss was about ;-)

Cheers,

Lukasz Michalczyk

The programme of the Symposium is now available here.

The Organizing Committee: Giovanni Pilato (University of Catania), Roberto Bertolani (University of Modena & R.E., Maria Grazia Binda (University of Catania), Dr. Roberto Guidetti (University of Modena & R.E.), Dr. Oscar Lisi (University of Catania), Professor Lorena Rebecchi (University of Modena & R.E.)

The section 'Archives 2006' has been opened today. It contains articles published in the beginning of 2006 (currently published articles are moved from the 'Recently published' to the 'Archives' after three months).

Lukasz Michalczyk

Exactly a year ago we introduced the stats system which records the visits to the Tardigrada Newsletter. During last 365 days we noted 837 hits which gives 2.2 visits per day on average. Thank you for visiting the web and we hope that the Newsletter will become even more popular in the next stats year.

Lukasz Michalczyk

WWW.TARDIGRADA.NET
New address for Tardigrada Newsletter

Tardigrada Newsletter has finally got a proper web address (www.tardigrada.net). The old one (http://www.uea.ac.uk/~b444219) is still working, but the new one is surely much easier to remember! :-)
Please update your links to the Newsletter.

Lukasz Michalczyk

The fourth announcement has been made. The link is available in the section 'Tardigrada links'.

The Organizing Committee: Giovanni Pilato (University of Catania), Roberto Bertolani (University of Modena & R.E., Maria Grazia Binda (University of Catania), Dr. Roberto Guidetti (University of Modena & R.E.), Dr. Oscar Lisi (University of Catania), Professor Lorena Rebecchi (University of Modena & R.E.)

Chosen papers form the 9th International Symposium on Tardigrada have been published in a special issue of 'Hydrobiologia'. All the references are listed in the 'Recently published' section and here is the link to the whole issue. The symposium volume is dedicated to Nigel Marley.

Lukasz Michalczyk

10^th International Symposium on Tardigrada - Third Announcement

The third announcement has been made. The information on the registration fees, abstract submissions, deadlines and accommodation in Catania is now available on the 10th International Symposium on Tardigrada official website (link available in the section 'Tardigrada links').

The Organizing Committee: Giovanni Pilato (University of Catania), Roberto Bertolani (University of Modena & R.E., Maria Grazia Binda (University of Catania), Dr. Roberto Guidetti (University of Modena & R.E.), Dr. Oscar Lisi (University of Catania), Professor Lorena Rebecchi (University of Modena & R.E.)

The 1^st birthday! :-)

Dear All!

Tardigrada Newsletter is one year old! :-)

We would like to thank you for all the support and interest you have shown during the first year and we hope that the Newsletter will get much older than that... :-D

Keep visiting our website and keep sending references of your papers!

Remember that on average TN is updated once a week and we note ca. 50 hits on the web each month.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

After six months

Today six months passes since the Tardigrada Newsletter was launched. We would like to thank you for all the interest and support. We hope that the Newsletter will remain helpful to you and also that more people will contribute information to the website.

Here are some numbers and statistics:

• Number of pages in the Tardigrada Newsletter = 18;

• Number of Tardigradologists who provided their directories = 21;

• Number of references listed (both in 'Recently published' and in 'Archives') = 45;

• Updates have been made once a week on average;

• We have noted one visit per day on average.

Today we also start a new section 'Collections' in which we would like to provide addresses and links to Tardigrada Collections in the world. We start with five, but hopefully the number will increase with time. If you would like to provide us with some addresses, we will be happy to put them on the web.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

Archives 2005

The section 'Archives 2005' has been opened today. It contains articles published in the beginning of 2005 (currently published articles are moved from the 'Recently published' to the 'Archives' after three months).

Lukasz Michalczyk

10^th International Symposium on Tardigrada - Second Announcement

All interested in attending the 10th Symposium can download the Pre-Registration form from the Symposium website (link available in the section 'Tardigrada links'). The deadline for pre-registration is 10 April 2005.

The Organizing Committee: Giovanni Pilato (University of Catania), Roberto Bertolani (University of Modena & R.E., Maria Grazia Binda (University of Catania), Dr. Roberto Guidetti (University of Modena & R.E.), Dr. Oscar Lisi (University of Catania), Professor Lorena Rebecchi (University of Modena & R.E.)

Two week break

I'm going to be away for the next two weeks, so there will be no updates during that time. Of course you are most welcome to send us any info for the Newsletter - it will just be put on the web in the beginning of February.

Lukasz Michalczyk

The first update in 2005

We start the New Year with a new section: 'Archives'. In the archives you will find the complete list of references for 2004. References from the section 'Recently published' will be moved to the archives after three months, thus after some time in the archives there will be also a full list for 2005 etc.

We are also happy to inform that we have added three new persons to the directories, four new papers published in 2004 and the first paper from 2005.

Please let us know if we have overlooked any papers in the archives from 2004!

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

The last update in 2004...

Dear All!!!

We would like to wish you all the best (which includes also lots of fascinating Tardie discoveries, of course!) in the coming New Year!!! :-)
This is the last update in the Old Year, but you won't have to wait for another one too long, as it will have place around mid January 2005.
We plan to put the complete list of Tardigrada references for 2004 and we would of course appreciate your help - thus, if you have published any papers on Tardigrada in 2004 that are not included in the current list, please let us know.

Cheers!

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek

10^th International Symposium on Tardigrada

We have just received the information that the next International Symposium on Tardigrada will be held in Catania (Italy), 18-23 June 2006. More information can be found on the Symposium official website (link is available in the section 'Tardigrada Links').

The Organizing Committee: Giovanni Pilato (University of Catania), Roberto Bertolani (University of Modena & R.E., Maria Grazia Binda (University of Catania), Dr. Roberto Guidetti (University of Modena & R.E.), Dr. Oscar Lisi (University of Catania), Professor Lorena Rebecchi (University of Modena & R.E.)

After one month...

We are very happy that the Newsletter was warmly welcomed by most of Tardigradologists who wrote to us. After one month we've got eight Tardigradologists directories, references to eight published papers and three which are currently in press. We hope that more of you will provide the addresses and other info to the directories and references (with links) of your papers. We are also open to any suggestions and new ideas.

Thanks for your co-operation :-)

Lukasz Michalczyk

The computer's death

Due to the problems with my computer (= death of the hard drive), the Newsletter wasn't updated for more than a month. I'm sorry for that - the update will be made tomorrow and all the sub pages will be available.

Lukasz Michalczyk

Tardigrada Newsletter starts! :-)

Today is the first day of the Tardigrada Newsletter existence. The web is not completely finished, but the sections which are currently under the construction will be ready soon.

We hope that this website will remain alive and will help in your research. We also count on your co-operation and sending us any references of papers that you are publishing or have recently published.

Lukasz Michalczyk & Lukasz Kaczmarek